


There Woe to Me Betide

by sleeperservice



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Mind Manipulation, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 33,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10381713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeperservice/pseuds/sleeperservice
Summary: Mikko Koivu just wanted a little time to himself that morning to prepare for the playoff push. The Queen of Faerie and her court make the break more than a bit longer than it should be. Seven years longer, in fact.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've tagged this fic "choose not to warn" because there are some issues in it that I did not want to tag for, and some that may be near archive warnings. There is a failed attempt at sexual coersion in this fic, and there is some mild violence as well as scenes involving blood.

Mikko decided to go for a run around the neighborhood before heading off to morning skate. It wasn't something he normally did, but the change in the seasons was giving him a peculiar energy. The road trip meant that he had missed the dumping of snow the previous week. At least most of the snow had melted already. The weather was actually resembling something you'd be able to call appropriate for the first days of spring. It felt good to get out there.

About a mile or so into the run, he could see that he was coming onto the park with the water tower. The trees were starting to bud, but the service road to the tower was still visible. It was weird not being able to hear the traffic from 169 out here, but the highway was going to be closed for most of the year. It was too early in the morning for the construction noise. There was someone walking their dog on the other side of the street. He started to put up a hand to acknowledge the dog walker, but felt himself being firmly grabbed from behind.

Mikko tried to turn around and face the attacker, but could not; nor could he fight back against the rough limbs that held him firmly. He shouted loudly. The person walking the dog had to have a phone. Maybe someone else was around here—maybe in the park beyond the woods or working at the water tower. He could hear the small yappy dog barking somewhere off in the distance. His unseen attacker dragged him into the woods, through the sharp and painful brush, catching his clothing on shrubs. Mikko knew for a fact this woods wasn't very much of a woods; the water tower and the baseball fields were probably less than seventy meters from the road, but still he was dragged on.

Everything hurt. It felt like he had been in an 8-player pileup, right at the bottom. Mikko’s kidnapper roughly pushed him to the ground. His assailant's grip felt like rough tree bark and it didn't help one bit that most of his clothing had been torn away during the interminable excursion through the scrub. He tried to get up to run, but that wasn't happening. Everything was bleeding, far worse than any in-game injury he'd recently had, and it hurt too much to finish pushing himself up. He collapsed back to the ground.

"Raise your head, little one."

He did as he was told. There was something in that voice that would compel one to obey, even if he hadn't been inclined to do so already. He didn’t have the energy left to dispute. A very tall woman holding a staff was in front of him. She was dressed like some elf maiden out of a movie.

"We are so fortunate today, both of us, aren't we?" she said. "Exactly what was desired." She tapped him lightly on the forehead with the staff, and all went dark.

* * *

The dog walker called 911 on her phone. She was having trouble believing her eyes. There hadn't been anyone around but that poor jogger, then these things came out of the woods and took him. If she hadn't known better, she'd have said that they were walking trees. Those couldn’t possibly exist, so there must have been people lying in wait for someone to pass by.

When the police arrived, she described the jogger—male, white, blond hair, probably somewhere around six feet tall, athletic build—and the attackers—taller than the jogger, skinny, looked like they were wearing brown ninja suits.

The cops laughed until she pointed at the path the men had made. They found clothing scraps along the route, and a fitness tracker, and a phone, and blood. The path ended about thirty feet from the street. After that, there were no signs of struggle or of anything else. Whoever he was, he had vanished into thin air.


	2. Chapter 2

Mikko awakened in a white room devoid of both decoration and doors. He wasn't alone; the light coming through the transom windows fell directly on a green figure sitting at the end of the bed.

"Oh, you're finally awake," the figure said as he raised his head and smiled at Mikko. He'd never seen anything like this guy. He was entirely green—dark green hair, grass-green eyes, skin the color of iceberg lettuce. He was dressed all in green, too.

"Finally? Where am I, anyway?"

" _Where_ is an ambiguous question," a female voice responded from the vicinity of the floor. Mikko looked down off the side of the bed and saw a tiny ragged brown creature, easily less than a meter tall. "This place has many names."

Seeing the green guy made him think that he had been captured by some sort of costumed cult, but the little brown lady just made the whole thing weirder still. "And what are those names?"

The green man responded. "Oh, Elphame, Faerie, the Land of Youth...so many more!"

"You people have got to be playing some sort of joke."

"Oh, no, no joke," the brown lady said. "You're here, in our land, where you and your talents will be treasured. Our mistress said you were special, and we're waiting to hear how special."

"Hear? Who's your mistress?"

The green man beamed at him. "The Queen of Faerie's daughter. We were seeking an addition to the court, and she had you found. Do you sing? Or do you play?"

"I'm a professional hockey player." The green man looked confused, so Mikko clarified. "Hockey's a sport, not something you play music on."

The little brown lady sighed. "Oh, dear. Oh, oh dear. I don’t think this will do at all."

"It may; there were other requirements for the human, and he appears to meet all of those more than adequately. And maybe he just doesn’t know he’s talented at music?"

"No. That’s something I definitely do know I have no talents for." This conversation was infuriating. He wanted out of this bed, out of this room, back to his life. He could probably take down the both of these spindly and tiny people but there wasn’t any exit to this room that was apparent to him. Not only were they part of a weird cult, but it was a weird cult that was really, really good at interior architecture.

The green man shook his head, took a flute from his belt and blew it. “We’ll just have to see what she says about this. She did it.”

A few moments later, the air started to shimmer. The shimmering particles formed into a body, a golden-haired girl of about twelve years of age who was dressed in the ultimate fairy princess costume, from the pink poofy dress down to the immense iridescent wings. “What seems to be the problem here, my darlings?”

Green and Brown bowed down to her, and Green spoke. “We believe you may have, um, erred in this choice. This human is neither a bard nor any other sort of performer; he plays an athletic game for money.”

“Oh, dearest Seedling, he evidently has some talents at what he does or we would have not found him so easily. We have other musicians here at court. This just makes it easier to keep him to ourselves, doesn’t it? There won’t be such a clamor for new songs like there was with the last one.”

“I’ll miss the new songs, though,” Brown said. “And what are we going to use this one for?”

The princess clapped. “Tea parties and moon frolics and games, Meg! We haven’t had anyone new to play with for a long time.”

Mikko didn’t like the sound of that. The only games he wanted to play had nothing to do with what sounded like children’s games, especially with some delusional people dressed as fairy tale characters. Their “princess” didn’t even bother with coming to visit directly, but instead projected her image in with some device he couldn’t even see. “You’re talking like I’m not even here. Can you tell me what this is about? Why did you go looking for me especially and then not even know what I do for a living?”

The princess floated over to his bedside—there was no other way he could describe that motion—and clasped his hands in hers. She was certainly real; her hands were cold. “You are special! We could feel how special you are. I just don’t know who you are. What do we call you?”

“My name’s Mikko, and I suppose that’s what you can call me.”

The princess clasped his hands tighter. It hurt. “That is indeed what we will call you! I’ve never heard that name before, out of all the humans we’ve had here.” She let go and clapped again. “You will have such a marvelous time with us! But there are rules.” She bent down and whispered in his ear. “Just for you. Don’t speak to anyone who isn’t me, or Seedling, or Meg, unless I tell you. Don’t eat any food but the food that’s left for you especially. You can’t eat our food; it will make you sick. Don’t leave your rooms without us. When you’re out, don’t wander off! It’s dangerous for you. Remember all of this, and give me your word.”

He nodded. “I’ll remember. And you have my word. When do I get to leave?”

“Not yet! It’s just the beginning of spring and it’s so wet outside and you’re still so fragile, you’ll get sick! You’ll have everything you want right here, and there’s still sunlight through the windows. Everything has its season.” She smiled at him so sweetly that he was almost reassured. Almost. Nothing was right here at all and he had to find some way to escape. After all, they were the ones who made him fragile by capturing him so violently. The odd thing about that was that he wasn’t in any unusual amount of pain and he had no visible scabbing or scarring from the ordeal. How long exactly had he been unconscious?

“We’ll leave you alone for a while. You can get up and look around your rooms. If there’s anything you’d like in them, let us know! Meg will return soon with your breakfast. Seedling will return as well with some new clothing for you. I will be back later to see how you are doing.” She kissed Mikko on the cheek and disappeared. He looked around for Meg and Seedling and also found them absent.

Two elaborately carved doors had appeared in the walls of his bedchamber. The door on the right led to a bathroom which looked mostly normal, except for the lack of mirrors. The door on the left led to a great room. It was a very white room, like all the rooms, but the upholstery was overly colorful—bright pink and pale orange—and everything was full of sparkly junk. An enormous circular light fixture made of faceted glass hung from the high ceiling and reflected prisms everywhere. The only normal-looking thing in the room was a large wooden table with seating for four. The furniture all looked comfortable, but there was no way that Mikko was going to put up with being visually offended all day, especially since there was no door leading to the outside and some relief.

He went back into the bedroom looking for anything resembling normal clothing. Someone, probably Seedling, had stuck him in a ridiculous nightshirt while he was in that dead-to-the-world period. Nothing was to be found. He heard a clinking from the great room so he went back there. Meg was there with breakfast. About time; he was intensely hungry, like he hadn’t eaten for weeks. Maybe he really hadn’t.

“Don’t thank me,” Meg said. “That’s a rule. You can’t thank brownies or we go away. I didn’t want you to make such a significant error when you didn’t even know.”

“All right, I won’t thank you.” Mikko looked at the food on offer. “Is there any coffee?”

“Coffee?” Meg looked horrified. “I don’t think we have any of that. What is it?”

“Only the most important drink in the world. That’s all right. If you can’t get it, you can’t get it.” This was another confirmation that they had just grabbed a random person off the street. If they had known anything about him, they’d have known about coffee.

“We have water….”

Mikko nodded. It was going to have to be all right with him, and there was plenty of food so if his only complaint was about the lack of coffee it wasn’t much of a complaint. After all, they didn’t have to feed him. They didn’t have to do anything.

Meg watched him eat with a sad look on her face. “Did you want something?” he asked.

“I can’t eat your food, just like you can’t eat mine.”

“Next time, bring yours so we can eat together.”

“It’s too dangerous; it looks the same so it would get mixed up. I know you’re trying to be kind to me, but it’s better for you this way.”

“I suppose.”

Just as he finished breakfast, Seedling arrived with a load of clothes. He followed Seedling into the bedroom. Seedling spread the clothes on the bed and opened the wardrobe.

“You’re requested to wear the green velvet today. There is a pair of matching slippers. I’ll hang the rest of these up while you clothe yourself.” Seedling hummed to himself as he put clothing on hangers.

Mikko looked over the mess of clothing on the bed. Mess was the proper term for it. He knew his own personal taste in fashion was bad if he was left to his own devices but it wasn’t this bad. The fabrics and construction were of high quality, but he couldn’t think of any normal person who would wear this stuff. It looked like costumes for a fantasy movie. There was an abundance of green clothing, with a few items in light blue. “I’m surprised you found some things that weren’t green,” he said.

“Oh, those are new. We didn’t know what color your eyes were until this morning. These match, you see, and you’ll look lovely in them. More will be coming.”

Mikko couldn’t contemplate that there would be more of this. He was already spoiled for bad choices. He picked up the green velvet suit and went into the bathroom to dress. As he took the nightshirt off and put the loose velvet on, he noticed that not only was his body unmarred from the injuries incurred in his abduction, but all his previous scars were also gone. He got a sick feeling. That sort of thing was patently impossible. Wherever he was, it wasn’t the world he knew. They hadn’t lied to him. He had a brownie and a green man as his personal servants and had just sworn himself to the commands of a real live fairy princess, wings and all. There was no escape.

* * *

The Wild barely held on to make the playoffs in 2017 after the disappearance of their captain. Once they got there, they were swiftly eliminated, swept out of the first round. They had wanted to win it for Mikko but the team had been running on fumes even before he was abducted. Between sick, dinged up, and extremely depressed it was no surprise they couldn’t hang on to win one game.

The 2017-18 season was going to be different. Despite their loss of key players to the expansion draft and free agency, the remaining parts were still really strong and they had a mission this season. They were dedicating this season to Mikko Koivu, who was still nominally a member of the team despite his absence. He had been added to the non-roster player list at the beginning of the season. The Wild hadn’t named a captain but had named Mikael Granlund and Jared Spurgeon as alternate captains, rotating per game with the existing alternates Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. They didn’t want to say that the season was dedicated to Koivu’s _memory_. They hoped nothing horrible had happened and that he was alive somewhere out there, but it was generally recognized among local law enforcement that the case had gone cold about fifteen minutes before the Edina cops had shown up on the original call. There were no signs to trace beyond the original ones, no DNA evidence that didn’t belong to Koivu, and no sightings. “Vanished into thin air” was a cliche, but it was all too accurate here.


	3. Chapter 3

The princess had not lied about the early spring weather. From what Mikko had been able to see from the enormous picture window in the great room, the weather had been alternately gloomy, rainy, windy, and probably cold for the majority of the past month. He had asked to go outside regardless, but his three jailers kept denying his request. He had tried to keep to a workout routine despite the lack of exercise equipment or running space. It would have been nice to go for a run in the rain. Yes, he knew where a surprise run got him the last time, stuck here in the land of the weird, but being stuck inside was turning him just as weird.

Seedling came every day to play chess and other peculiar board games Mikko had never seen before. Learning those games was mentally stimulating, and it was quite enjoyable when Mikko managed to trounce Seedling at a game that Seedling had probably been playing for years, but it wasn’t the same as playing hockey.

On the other hand, he would much rather play any amount of intellectual puzzles with Seedling than what the princess enjoyed doing with him. Every evening, she would arrive before dinner and request that he change into some elaborate clothing construction that was even more outlandish than the finely embroidered tunics and trousers that Seedling would lay out for him in the morning. She would watch him eat dinner while chattering his ears off with gossip about the other people in the fairy court he wasn’t allowed to meet or even see, with the occasional mildly personal question for him tossed in. Then she would command that he sat on the floor while she sat on the sofa and brushed his hair.

Mikko, back home, had usually alternated between the same two hairstyles throughout his adult life. Neither of them had been long. His hair had never grown fast but in the days he had been there it had already grown past his earlobes. This should have been impossible. He didn’t like it. Even the missing spots were growing back.

He really wanted a haircut. The princess, of course, said no, and there wasn’t anything around in his chambers that he could have used to give himself one. The funny thing that he had first thought when seeing the rooms had no mirrors was that it was going to be hard to give himself a good shave, and then he noticed that they hadn’t supplied him with a razor. As it turned out, he didn’t need one; that was even more disturbing than what was happening to the rest of his hair.

This particular morning just felt different. The sun was shining. This day’s clothing, despite the slight embroidered ornamentation, was brown and practical. He was wearing shoes with hard soles instead of the soft slippers he had been wearing since his arrival. 

Meg stayed around after breakfast, something she didn’t normally do. When Seedling arrived, he had the princess in tow.

“We’re going outside today!” She was still wearing her usual frilly pink gown but today she was carrying a golden ball instead of her star wand. “We’re going to play some nice outdoor games, just us four.” One of the side windows transformed into a door. She ran through it and beckoned for the rest to follow her.

Mikko followed, but at a brisk pace and not a run. He felt ridiculous enough already. He could see the others already at a small field covered in grass and clover. The air smelled odd. The trees looked weird. The species didn’t look like anything found in either the parts of Finland or Minnesota that he was familiar with. There was something that looked like a magnolia but its blooms were blood-red; another tree had its branches in a multi-puffed arrangement of tiers. Even the birdsong was unrecognizable. He turned around to look back at where they had come from. The building wasn’t as he had imagined; it was no fairytale castle but a sprawling structure of mixed heights and architectural styles.

The princess and Meg were rolling the golden ball back and forth to each other when Mikko arrived at the field. Seedling was standing off to the side, shirtless and shoeless, with his feet stuck into the dirt. Mikko had become used to seeing a green person every day, but he hadn’t thought that the green person was also some sort of plant. He sighed in resignation and gestured to Meg to have her roll him the ball.

“Have you considered throwing the ball?” Mikko asked.

“It’s more traditional to roll it,” the princess said. “But if throwing it would delight you, we shall throw it.”

He didn’t know if it would delight him as much as he really didn’t want to handle anything rolling on the ground without a stick. He picked up the ball and tossed it underhand at the princess, but his control was off and the ball nearly went through her wing. She flitted aside in time to miss it. Her throw to Meg was soft and on target. Meg’s throw to Mikko was low, inside, and of more velocity than he expected out of a brownie. The heavy golden ball hit him on the hand as he tried to catch it. He swore as the ball dropped out of his hand and hit him in the foot.

“Perhaps we should play something else,” the princess said. “How about a game of tag? It will be fun, and I’ll start!” She ran to Seedling and tagged him with force.

“I’m in root here, my lady,” Seedling grumbled. “Let me unfix before you run away, or it shan’t be fair. I will never catch up.”

The princess did not listen; she was already halfway across the field. Meg had been running, but stopped. Mikko hadn’t bothered to run. This was even more silly and childish than the ball rolling, but it was fairly expected from what he had experienced over the last month. Seedling ran and tagged Meg; she had been closer to him. Meg looked around for nearby targets. Mikko still hadn’t moved. Meg sped towards the princess and tagged her on the foot. The princess had only one target in mind. Mikko saw this in time and started to run, but she was faster. She ran straight into him with a hugging tackle; he slipped on the wet ground and fell down. She fell on top of him.

Mikko tagged the giggling princess on the top of her head. “Tag someone else this time. I’m done.”

“Oh, Mikko, you silly goose! You’re not done. It’s a wonderful spring. Enjoy as much of it as you can.”

* * *

The Wild finally pulled it off in 2018, making it to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Washington Capitals and defeating them in Game 7. The team decided that Mikael Granlund, despite being the most junior of the alternate captains that season, should be the first man to get to hoist the Cup. Granlund did so, weeping openly, with tears that took a very long time to stop.

The commissioner’s office granted the team’s petition to have Mikko Koivu’s name engraved on the Cup. He should have been there. The team had been influenced by his example, especially Granlund, who led the team in scoring. This should have been Koivu’s Cup to raise above his head, the reward for thirteen seasons of hard work. This was the least they could do to honor him.


	4. Chapter 4

Mikko’s daily routine had not changed much in the past month, except for the addition of outdoor activities to fit into the longer days. They had stopped playing tag, and had started walking in an area around the structure with elaborately planted flower gardens. Some of the flowers were familiar, others were almost familiar: they were unnatural colors or oversized or, in one case, mobile. A good many were completely unknown to him. A whole new world of exciting allergic reactions opened. There were a few plants he would never wish to touch again; the itching had been horrible.

He’d also noticed that he was getting sunburned. Whatever weird cream they gave him worked, a little bit, but going out at the height of the sun was still bothersome—even more so than it had normally been in the real world. His eyes hurt, too. He was very surprised that they hadn’t heard of sunglasses, but he probably shouldn’t have been. After all, they didn’t even have coffee. Instead, their excursions out were then confined to the late afternoon after the peak of the sun had passed.

During one of their walks, Mikko had asked the princess for her name. She giggled and shook her head. “Oh, _no_.”

From what he could get out of Seedling and Meg, her name was not allowed to be used by most; even those who knew it didn’t use it. Names had power here, which obviously he hadn’t known when he gave her his name. At least he hadn’t given her his full name.

“Midsummer is nearly here,” the princess told him one evening as they performed the nightly hair-brushing ritual.

He still didn’t like this part of the daily routine that much but for some reason it made him relaxed and sleepy. The sleepier he was, the better or more non-existent his dreams were. If he could only stop dreaming about playing hockey, or being back home, or the triumphs of his friends and teammates he would be far happier. Dreaming about Mikael holding the Cup had been somewhat pleasing, and he only hoped that it had just happened in real life—it had been almost three months since he was taken and that dream was just around the right time for the Finals to have happened. It just was so painful that he hadn’t been there for it, if it had really happened. “Already? It’s one of my favorite holidays.”

“It is?” She looked at him quizzically. “Nobody else we’ve had here seems to know it. It’s one of our great festivals here. This one is one of the most fun. We’ll walk around the festival grounds, and there are booths with food and games and the most delightful things to buy. Don’t worry, if there’s anything you wish to have I will get it for you.”

“Ya, except the food. It’s probably food for your people, not for me.”

She laughed. “Oh, yes, but don’t worry that you won’t get fed! I know you so look forward to mealtime.”

He did, but that was another peculiar occurrence. Outside of the walks and the still-usual routines of running short bursts around the room and weightlifting with large books, he wasn’t leading a physically demanding lifestyle. His body, to his chagrin, was starting to show it. “Maybe we’ll have so much fun that I’ll forget about it. I hope I forget.”

“You will have fun. But you won’t forget our rules, correct?”

“Yes, my lady. Don’t talk with anyone without your permission and don’t go anywhere without you or Meg or Seedling.”

“I have you trained so well, don’t I? Now, get plenty of sleep, because the festival is tomorrow and you’ll not want to miss a minute of it lazing in bed.”

The next morning, he woke to the sun. Seedling had not been there to awaken him. He saw something hanging from the wardrobe with a note attached.

_We have the day off. You should be able to dress in this without assistance. Don’t forget the sunshade. Our lady will come to fetch you in the morning._

He picked the piece of clothing up. It was some sort of robe that tied with a sash, in dark blue. At least it was unadorned and looked reasonably normal and probably real-world. It looked good for hot days.

The princess arrived almost immediately after he got dressed. She was holding a dark blue paper umbrella. “Don’t forget this. You’ll need it, for the sun. We’re fortunate that some of our previous visitors left these things behind.”

She led him, not outside, but through another opening into the structure itself. He had never been in the rest of it. He could imagine getting lost so easily without a map or someone to follow. There were so many hallways, and many had similar appearances. When they finally arrived outside of the structure, it was already getting hot. The climate control inside had to be really good although he still had no idea how it worked. He had thought he had suffered enough through living in Houston his first year in the United States, where it was summery and humid even in October, but this place’s summer showed potential to rival even that. It wasn’t that humid yet.

They entered a busy outdoor marketplace filled with all variety of people, most human-shaped but some not. There was a woman bargaining with someone at one of the booths, not so unusual in itself, but the corner of her dress was continually dripping water even though the rest of her dress appeared dry. Someone else, a few booths down at a game, had just won a goldfish. From what he could tell from the pictures in the signage on the booth, the goldfish were obviously meant as either pets or ornamental pond dwellers. The goldfish winner had other ideas, as he swallowed it live.

Mikko kept following the princess as she flitted from one booth to another, only looking, almost never stopping to talk to anyone. He was amazed by all the things he saw, from the clever little mechanical insects that looked almost real, to the wood objects that appeared to have been grown in their shapes.

He had stopped to look at a clothing booth that had knit sweaters of the sort he used to wear back home. The princess took one look at them and giggled. “Is that really what you want? You would look so funny in them!”

He supposed he would, here, but those were things he really liked. They also had brightly patterned socks, which made him laugh. He played with quite a few guys who would have got a kick out of those socks. He reluctantly left that booth and continued to follow the princess, who looked at a lot of jewelry; whether it was for her or for him was something he didn’t want to contemplate much.

She finally stopped to talk to someone. It was Seedling, coming from a stand that was selling some sort of edible plant stalks. He had a handful of them and was distributing them to a green woman about his size and two small green children. The little boy was tearing the stalks open and popping out the beans inside, then eating them.

“You could wait until everyone has at least one, you know,” Seedling said to the boy.

“I’m sorry, Father,” the boy replied, and gave a few beans to the little girl.

Seedling had kids? And, presumably, this was also his wife? They were eating plants. He thought they were plants. And how did plant people reproduce anyway? Flowers? Shoots? He thought of asking, but that would have been extremely impolite.

Mikko looked down at the princess and squeezed her hand, trying to convey a desire for permission to talk. It seemed ridiculous, but he had agreed to those rules.

“Yes, you may talk to these people. I'm so glad that you didn't disobey.” She smiled at him.

He was delighted by that smile, which kept him at ease as he greeted Seedling. “It's good to see you out today with your family.”

“This is my wife, and these are my children. They have indeed heard of you.”

He noticed Seedling did not give names for his family. It had occurred to him before that “Seedling” was just a nickname that the princess used for him. Seeing what other green people outside of Seedling’s immediate family looked like confirmed this. It was just a very snarky nickname one would give to a short adult man who looked very young and who was also a plant person. It wasn’t that far off from some of the hockey nicknames.

“It’s nice to meet you. I guess I should have asked some questions.” He glanced at Seedling’s wife, who had a very peculiar expression on her face. It was something of a mix between fascination and horror. Had she not seen humans before or had he become just that unusual-looking?

Seedling shook his head. “I don’t think we were in a situation where those sorts of questions would have spontaneously arisen.”

“I could have thought to ask. Your family seems nice.”

“Thank you. I will see you tomorrow morning.” Seedling and his family walked away, his wife continuing to stare back at Mikko with that same expression.

“That was interesting. I wish he had told me about them.” He was speaking to nothing, as the princess had moved on to looking at other delights among the food stands. Everything at those stands looked and smelled wonderful and tempting. There were fruits he had never seen before, and the people eating them looked so happy. It wouldn’t do any harm just to take one bite, would it?

Suddenly, the princess was next to him. “I saw your sunshade dip. You were looking at the food, weren’t you? You know those things out there aren’t for you. Here’s a safe strawberry for you.”

He took the offered strawberry and quickly ate it before his eyes could wander to things he’d rather have to eat but couldn’t. This was turning into a disappointing day.

The princess reached up to tap him on the shoulder. “You know, you haven’t asked me for anything else! You had to have chosen something from all those places. We looked at so much!”

She had asked him to look for things that he would like, but all he could see were things he would have liked to buy for other people; people he had no idea if he would ever see again in this life. It was taking every bit of control that he had not to break down sobbing in the middle of the marketplace. Quietly, he asked her, “Is there something you would like to buy for me? It’s hard to decide for myself, there’s so much stuff here.”

“Indeed there was. Right at the beginning, in fact.” She grabbed him by the hand that wasn’t holding the sunshade and led him a long way back to a small jewelry booth.

He hasn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary at this booth when they had passed by it the first time. Everything there was rather plain and unadorned, not full of the wonders of the worlds.

The princess pointed to a simple golden circlet. “I had this in mind for you. It’s very plain and practical, yet it shines. Much like you do. It will look so lovely with your hair.”

He had no idea what to say to that. It was another foreign concept—wearing things in his hair, for crying out loud, that hadn’t been long enough to even have anything clipped in it since he was a small child. It felt good to be complimented, but he wished it could have been for something more substantial. “Thanks,” he said, forcing out a small smile.

“Anything at all for you. With this done, I will lead you to a secluded spot, where you can eat undisturbed while I shop for some more surprises. Won’t you like that?”

He liked the idea of the food, all right, but not so much the surprises. He could only follow where she led. He was helpless not to.

She came back to fetch him very late, right about the time the sun was setting. He had eaten and then fallen asleep in the shade of some very large and spreading trees. His eyes hurt, even with his continual use of the sunshade.

"There are some light displays going on in a glade not far from here. They are only open to the immediate members of the court and their guests so there won’t be the press of the crowds like there were in the market. Have you seen any displays like this?"

"For Midsummer back home, there were fires." He did not want to explain more. Every difference between here and what he would normally be doing around now was just too painful to contemplate. He’d be with his family at his cottage around now doing the same things they had done for Midsummer for his entire life. What were they doing now? Were they trying to have fun despite his absence? Were they even there, or were they in Minnesota trying to find him?

"Nothing on fire, just light. I think you will enjoy it very much. Just remember, stay with me and do not talk unless I tell you to. You were so good with that today; I’m very proud of you."

He followed her to the glade in a haze of delight. Why did pleasing this girl feel so good to him? There was no good reason for it but there it was.

Once they arrived at the glade, they kept to the edges. He had collapsed the sunshade as the sun was no longer bright enough to cause as much damage as it would have during the height of the day. The crowd was indeed as small as promised, although as varied in appearances as the vast crowd in the marketplace. A very tall, elaborately dressed woman with long dark hair had noticed their arrival and started walking over to them.

"My mother the queen approaches,” the princess whispered. “Do what she says, but do not talk to her even if she asks."

Mikko nodded and held himself completely still. He was going to face this new opponent with the same mental skills he used to face opponents on the ice—or at least try to.

"So this is our newest member of the court," the queen said. "How long were you going to hide him from me, my daughter?"

“He knew little about our lands and ways, and I did not wish to startle or frighten him more than he was already. And he has no talents with words or music, so you would not wish him to play or recite for the court.”

“I assume he has more talents than just the visible, or else he would have not been found.”

“He has said that he does, but they are not readily apparent. The physical feats he can perform, from what I gather, can only happen during winter.”

The queen turned to address Mikko. She towered over him by at least a third of a meter. “And what are those, hmm?” He held still and silent as he was originally commanded to do.

“Ah, he knows the rules!” The queen cupped his chin in her hand and tipped his head up. “You have done fine work with that, I see, my daughter. Not finished yet, I do not think, but we have some time. And so much not what I would have preferred to choose for myself. I do admit you do have a good sense for your personal aesthetics.”

The queen let go of his chin and moved her hands down his body, from the shoulders down to just above his knees. He was afraid to move. “You have done well. Quiet and biddable; soft and fair as moonlight. I do not understand, my daughter, why you yet haven’t taken what is yours by right?”

“I do not think he is mine to have. He is my treasure, but one I wish to keep safe.”

“Do you not know yourself enough, that what you do would do him harm?” The queen had an angry look on her face.

“I do know myself. I do not know him, and what he most desires, and what he most fears.”

“Find that, my daughter, before it is too late. Perhaps you do not know yourself as well as you think. Looking at you right now, I barely know you.”

The princess looked down at her feet. “I will attempt to do as you ask, but not tonight. Tonight we will enjoy the lights and that is all we will do.”

The queen nodded and walked back to the center of the glade. The princess quickly hugged Mikko, who was still standing as stiffly as he had been when the queen first approached. “I’m sorry,” she said.

As the light show began, the princess took him by the hand firmly and did not let go until it was over. He didn’t mind.


	5. Chapter 5

After Midsummer, it became hot and sticky outside, as Mikko had been afraid it would. Even worse, being under the sun had finally become unbearable. He had figured out why while in the bath as he was looking at his limbs, now nearly as white as the vessel he was bathing in. Fair as moonlight, indeed, his mind casting back to the words of the queen. He could see more of his circulatory system lurking blue underneath his pallor at that moment than he really cared to.

Living an indoors life again in the heart of summer was not remotely what he had wanted to do. It just gave the princess more opportunities for close interaction which made him highly uncomfortable. He read her stories from those large illustrated books and stumbled over unfamiliar English archaisms. She, to his relief, did not laugh at him. She played the confusing board games he used to play with Seedling. She beat him almost every time. There was just too much time spent in the company of only three others, and with the princess taking over some of the roles that belonged to her servants, it soon became like spending time with only one.

The moon was going to be full soon so the princess decided to take him outside with her, just the two of them. For those days he would have his sleep-wake periods flipped. The promise of outside, despite it being dark, was so very exciting. Even with the princess there to calm him in the evenings, he found it difficult to get to sleep. The prospect of something different had him in a constant state of anticipation until the actual night came.

The princess led him outside and in the opposite direction of the ways they usually traveled in the daytime. He hadn’t seen the moon distinctly before, but on this night the moon was just about full and very visible. This moon was not Earth’s moon. It was too large, and too bright, and too low in the sky. Its craters were not the same. This made him feel even more hopeless and alone. Was he the only human on this world?

They came to a large pond, or perhaps a very small lake, which had white water lilies in it that seemed to glow with an interior luminescence. Mikko felt drawn to the water. He slowly walked through the wet grass to get to the shore. This was the only side of the pond where the water was clear and not choked with the enormous water lilies and their equally enormous lily pads. With the light from the moon and the lilies, his reflection was clearly visible in the water. He didn’t look that much different, just younger with an unmarred, rounder face. Why didn’t he have access to a mirror? It wouldn’t have changed things. He already knew what they had done to him because of what he could see on the rest of his body. Maybe they thought he’d be offended by the hair. He still didn’t like it, at least on himself. It would have looked nice on someone who wasn’t him. There was too much of it, far past his shoulders now, and held back with the golden circlet that was his Midsummer gift from the princess.

He heard yelling from behind him. "Get away from there!" The princess’s voice was wavering with distress. "There are _others_ in the water and they will see you and you are so beautiful that they will wish to keep you and they will pull you in and you will _drown_."

He slowly moved away from the water. "Is that any different than what has happened to me already?"

'You will not drown at my command, nor because of my neglect."

"Yes, my lady. I only wanted to look in the water."

"I know. It is tempting. That is why the lilies glow and why the water is clear there. Do you see that hand coming out of the water? It is there for you. Let us walk over to these rocks where we can sit and observe safely."

They sat on the rocks. Mikko saw the tops of three heads come out of the water slowly. Once their eyes appeared, they looked around and then quickly ducked below the surface. His eyes widened in surprise. "Ah, I see now," he said.

They sat in companionable silence for several minutes. The princess broke the silence first. "Can you tell me about hockey? And what you liked about it? I know it is your special talent, but I do not know enough about it to understand."

"It’s played on ice, which I know I’ve told you. There’s five people skating to a side, and a goalkeeper on each one, and the object is to get the puck into the opposite goal by shooting it with your stick."

"Oh, we have that! On the grass. Hurling. We haven’t had a match played here in a long time, but I saw it years and years ago in another land."

"So I can’t watch it or play it, I see." This new game would have at least been a distraction or a novelty, something for him to do.

"You would not be allowed to play. We need your kind to watch it, one on each side, to make sure the game is fair and well-played."

"Only one of me, eh." He gave her an inquisitive look.

She giggled. "Of course there’s only one of you! The best one."

"Obviously." He shook his head. "But I was not the best at what I did. I have to admit that. Lots of teammates were better than me. I was there to lead them, a little bit, although later they kept bringing in other people to help with that. I tried to make us all play a little better, seeing the whole ice, setting up the plays for them to make the goals. It wasn’t just about me. I wanted to be the best I could be, always working hard, but it’s got to be about the team and about winning."

"I think you are undervaluing yourself. If you weren’t good at what you did, you would have never come here."

 _Come, what a false word for what actually had happened_ , he thought. "Didn’t say I wasn’t good. Just not the best. Wanted to be, but...there’s only so much that I came with that can be worked on. They were always looking for offense, but I told them when I got drafted that this is the way I play. I didn’t lie."

"Of course you do not lie. You are like us, you value the truth."

 _The truth, at slant?_ He recognized that way of communication. He used it a lot himself, with the press, with a former coach, and even with some other players who couldn’t be reached any other way. "I do. I tell you some truths now. I miss my team. I miss playing and competing. I miss being on the ice. I think I missed our playoffs and that was going to mean a lot to me. It may have been my last chance to win a championship."

"I promise we will let you skate when the waters ice over this winter. Now I know it would bring you so much joy."

"I will be here for when it’s cold, then."

"Of course. I thought you understood."

"I’m going to miss this next season." His last source of hope was dashed.

She grasped his hand. "I know you don’t like it, but we’ll have a lot to do this winter, and you will get to skate, like I said! I will hold to my promise, you know this."

"I trust you with that, but it’s still not…I’m lonely and this is not my home. Despite everything you’ve done, or are trying to do."

"We will try to give you almost anything that will make you happy. You’ve made me so happy since you came here. I love listening to you read to me. I like your voice. You’re so nice to be next to, so calming, so soft and so beautiful."

"You’re complimenting me on things that I’m not. If I am those things, I shouldn’t be those things. And...I want your approval, I don’t know why, you’re just a child and it feels wrong." _But is she_ , he thought. _Who knows how old these beings are, despite how they look._

"But it’s not! Why didn’t anyone say nice things to you before? You’ve always been those things, in your heart, or in the eyes of someone who can truly see you."

"Those were things I didn’t need. I’m a hockey player. Not...I've lost everything that makes me who I am. What is left?" Mikko looked at the water. It was still tempting him. "I only want to go home. If I have to stay here, please give me something to do, something to be." He couldn’t hold it in any longer. He burst into tears, running hot down his face; he was screaming with frustration and despair and the sense of finality that had come upon him.


	6. Chapter 6

Since his breakdown in front of the princess, Mikko felt even more uncomfortable around her. He flinched at her touch and tried not to make eye contact. She noticed his discomfort; in the days of the moon, it was Meg who walked with him as a chaperone, to keep him from the places and beings that would harm him. The princess still came in the evenings, but she was quieter and less openly affectionate towards him. He felt like he had done something wrong, although that had not been the case. She still approved, and in that approval was light and warmth and happiness.

In that way, another month passed. The days were getting shorter. The bright moon nights came once more, and he was allowed outside again by its light. Even at night, the air was oppressively hot and humid. It was like breathing soup. He was thankful he was allowed to go out, but it wasn't that enjoyable.

Seedling arrived with a few oddly shaped bundles on the afternoon of the night the moon was to be full. "These are some gifts our lady bought for you on Midsummer," he said. "You are supposed to wear them when you go out tonight. There is something special planned. I don't know what these are, but I think you will like them."

Mikko did not, in fact, like them. The garment was of a light blue silk decorated with silver beads and thread and resembled nothing so much as a dress, fitted on top and loose and flowing at the bottom. The circlet was silver and, instead of being simple, was an elaborate work made to resemble a moonflower vine, with leaves of metal and flowers of translucent white glass. It was the first time in a while that someone had to help dress him. Seedling even did his hair—while standing on a stepstool as Mikko kneeled on the floor—to make sure the circlet stayed in place. He would have liked to have seen himself in a mirror that night if only to gaze in horror at his appearance. He still hadn't been allowed a mirror.

Seedling led him outside. Mikko had rarely seen Seedling after dark before. "These are late hours for you. Is your wife okay with that?"

"'Okay?' I do not understand this word."

"Is she going to be angry with you?"

"It is my job to serve my lady, and this is what she has ordered me to do. I believe it is only for this night so she should not be angry for that long. I will be really tired in the morning, but that's fine with me."

They walked to the edge of a wooded area. There was a slight opening in the bushes. "Go in through that opening," Seedling said. "You will be safe in there. I won't need to come with you. You can talk to whoever is in there, you have permission from me and from our lady. My word is true and so is hers."

Mikko was afraid of disobeying the princess, but Seedling wouldn't lie to him. Whoever and whatever was waiting for him was approved of and allowed. He went through the opening and entered a bower filled with flowers; not only moonflowers but other trumpet-shaped white flowers on shrubs and small bush-like plants. Their open blossoms glowed under the light of the moon that was directly overhead and their fragrance filled the air.

In the midst of the flowers, a golden-haired woman sat on a chair woven of branches. She was wearing a nearly transparent gown, embroidered with white blossoms, that was fit tight to her lush curves; on her head was a crown of pointed rainbow crystals. She was holding a black staff in her left hand. Mikko recognized the staff and soon recognized the woman. This was the woman who had taken him away from his world five months before.

"Come here, Mikko," she commanded. "Do not look surprised that I know who and what you are. You will be safe."

He approached warily. Despite the assurances of people he trusted, he did not trust her. She was probably as foul as she appeared fair. He knew what she had done to him to get him there. What else could she be? "I also know who and what you are and I do not believe you."

"I swear to you that you will come to no harm at my hand tonight. You know what our word is worth by now. Sit here, at my feet, and we shall converse, and perhaps do other things, as the night winds on."

He did as asked. As he sat, his gown pooled around him, obscuring his legs underneath. He felt compelled to obey her by the same force that compelled him to seek his princess's approval. He realized that he would probably do anything this lady commanded, this lady he feared like nothing else in this world, and the thought chilled him.

"You have done very well. Can you look up at me, please? Oh, yes, you can. Your eyes are so beautiful, like an overcast sky, and they look like welcoming lit lamps in this dark. Don't weep, beloved, do not weep. I cannot bear to see you cry."

"I have no reason to cry. The flowers are making my eyes water." If he was to weep, it would be in anger. This woman presumed too much for someone he had only seen at his most distressed. "I did not expect to see you again after you took me."

"I did expect to see you. This night has finally come. I have awaited it so patiently since the day I fetched you home."

"You took me by accident! I can't believe my lady trusted you with so important a thing. You needed a musician! And you got me, and they even had to change me to get what they wanted."

"You were always what I wanted. And now you are more so. You should be pleased. I saw what sort of horrible things had been done to you before I found you. I fixed them."

"Those were old hockey injuries! I knew what I was getting into. You get cut with skates, hit with sticks, make repeating motions and get hurt, all that stuff."

"I did not realize that game was so violent for you as our game is for us. You humans are so much weaker. Isn't it wonderful that I was able to heal you so well? We would never wish to see you be injured in those ways again."

"It's a bit late to be so protective, isn't it?"

"No, it is not. You have no idea what you mean to me. To all of us. You are so very precious."

"I don't understand why, you don't make it clear. All of you want me here for something. To look at like some kind of ornament, I think."

"It is more than that. You will find out later. Right now, I cannot tell you. I just wish you to be at peace, now, please."

She reached down and took a piece of his hair and twisted it around her finger. "This has indeed worked so well. A bit of sunlight under the moon, so much like mine. I would delight in seeing you on this soft ground, this shimmering gold fanned out under you in magnificent disarray."

Mikko did not like the sound of that. Her intent was clear now; this was no meeting only for conversation. Her words, her actions, and the setting pointed toward seduction. He could not deny that he would have been attracted to her under normal circumstances. These were not normal circumstances. His heart was beating fast. He was trapped at her feet.

He tried to make a joke out of it. "I have bad luck. One of these little yellow flowers would probably end up stuck in my ear."

"I would just remove it, then." She continued playing with the stray lock. "You do look so lovely in this moonlight. What would you look like here, under this moon, unclothed?"

That was certainly getting around to it. "Like any other man you've had in this glade. Nothing here that isn't the same as anyone else."

She ceased twisting his hair. "I have never had anyone here, and you are not like anyone else. Never are you like anyone else I have seen."

Mikko was still very nervous, but was delighting in the compliments. This was a familiar wrong feeling, and that was unusual in itself; compliments by those other than the princess usually didn't give him that feeling. "You need to get around more, I'm about as ordinary as they come."

"You have become extraordinary."

Once again, he was reminded that these people may not lie, but sometimes their perspective was a bit at a tilt. He'd fallen in with faeries with exceptionally unusual tastes. They weren't exaggerating to flatter him; they really believed all this junk, because to them it was true. That, sadly, was the most flattering part of all. "I'm happy you feel that way. It's nice."

She arose from the chair and gracefully lowered herself to sit beside him. She was definitely taller than Mikko was, but it was hard to tell how much as whenever he was around her he seemed to be rendered helpless on the ground.

She put her arm around him. "Much better, correct?"

He nodded, although he really didn't agree. It was confusing, not better. The sweet, sticky jasmine-like scent of the flowers felt intoxicating, and his mind was getting fuzzy.

"I am glad you are enjoying my company. So very glad. Now, my little sweet, turn your head to face me."

Mikko obeyed her command and hoped he was keeping the fear he felt from showing in his expression.

She bent her head and gave him a light, quick kiss on the lips. He did not respond in kind. Her lips were wet and he could smell the residue of roses on his own.

She looked at him in surprise. "Oh, Mikko, you sad dear thing! I thought humans enjoyed kissing. But you do not, I suppose. What could I do that would make you smile again? I wish to fill you with joy. Will you lie with me tonight, my jewel?"

He wanted to. He shouldn't have wanted to. He was enchanted, entranced, and overstimulated. None of these feelings should be real. However, she had not commanded him, but phrased it as a question; this implied he had a choice. "No, I will not. Not tonight, not any night, not any day."

"I do not understand. Am I not desirable? Aren't you lonely? I wished to comfort you, to make you happy…." She drew him into an embrace.

Her very scent was arousing. How much of this situation had been crafted to railroad him into a sexual response to someone he hated? If he screamed, would Seedling come? "You are, I am, but I am afraid and that is no good place for me to be if you want that from me. Nothing's going to work right. The night will be wasted, we will both be disappointed."

She held him tightly. "I promised I would not harm you tonight. I care for you. I wish you were not afraid, but there is nothing I can do that would make you not so. I feel your heartbeat against me, so fast, like a frightened little mouse. I could hold you like this until the dawn and even perhaps then it would not decrease your fear."

Mikko could have easily relaxed into the comfort of that embrace but did not. "Your promise is only for now. What stops you from taking me whenever you want later? I don't like you, you know you scare me. I don't want you to be sad, but I don't want to be your lover."

She finally stopped crushing him against her and let him go. "I asked you what you wanted. For now, you said no. You can always change your mind. If you want my company, for as long as you desire, you need only ask your servants to bring you to me. I dearly hope that you will, someday, trust me as much as I love you."

The anguished expression on her face looked genuine. Perhaps this was as close as she would ever come to an apology for kidnapping him. He couldn't bring himself to ask for one at that point. As she looked down in despair, Mikko took the opportunity to scramble to his feet and run out of that bower of sweetly scented sorrow back to his familiar prison.


	7. Chapter 7

That month proved to be a baffling one for Mikko. Everything appeared to be back to the usual routine, but one day bled into the next and the next until Mikko was confused about what month it even was. He felt like there was something very important that he should have been doing about that time but he could not remember what it was, no matter how hard he tried. The days were getting shorter. It was probably something to do with that but he had no idea what it was. With the shorter days and a corresponding change in contents of meals, the month was probably September. The apples were a lot fresher now and there were far more of them. He was still frustrated that he wasn't keeping better track of the time.

One morning the princess was there with his breakfast, along with Meg. Unusual changes in his daily routine, Mikko had learned by now, presaged unusual events that he was not sure that he could withstand anymore. There were cloudberries on the table. He hadn't realized they had them here too, or that they would be already in season. Sadly they were not served in the familiar manner from home; these ones were accompanied by cream and fluffy cake, a lot like the strawberry shortcakes Minnesotans ate during the summer. He ate them anyway. The taste was a nostalgia bomb, an explosion of early autumn. Mikko finally realized what time of year it was. Mid-September, the time for training camp. He should be in camp. Instead, he was here, looking at the princess looking at him and grinning with delight.

"It is wonderful to see you so happy from such a simple thing as food," she said. "I had thought I would never see you smile like that again."

"I am happy, yes, these taste like home, but I'm sad too. I'm missing our team's preseason practices."

"Do not worry for your team. We have our own things to practice. There is so much to do in this week and we need you to do it with us."

"I figured. You don't come here this early without something to surprise me. This time it had better be a good surprise. I think the last ones have been bad."

"It is our Harvest Festival. We celebrate the wonderful summer we had and give thanks for our food, like those little berries there that made your eyes so bright. We wish you to join us, of course, and to help us celebrate. You need to be part of our thanksgiving ceremony."

"That is something I can do. It sounds interesting."

"You will not have to do much. We will be in the special apple orchard and you just have to help us gather apples. After that, you will stand during the ceremony and perform some tasks as you will be instructed to do. It will be very easy for you."

"Are you going to be there?"

The princess giggled. "Even if you cannot see me, I will be close by. Do not fret so far in advance."

"I'm not worried. Or scared. Nervous, yes. I was just hoping for something familiar."

"You have met my mother, of course. She should be familiar, even if still I do not wish you to speak with her."

"And your servant, the golden-haired one who took me?" Mikko glared at the princess.

She blinked rapidly and then smiled. "Oh! Yes. You can talk to her whenever you would desire."

Now he really was not looking forward to this harvest ceremony. He was hoping to go as long as possible without seeing his captor. He was still not quite over his harrowing evening experience from the previous month. He had been feverish and confused for days and hadn't wanted anyone around him. To find he was going to be near her again, and that his princess approved of her, had him puzzled.

"I don't think I want to talk with her, but if you say it's fine, I suppose I should trust you."

She nodded. "I am not trying to make you feel bad, but sometimes we need to do things which we do not wish to do. Please, will you do this for me?"

It was for her, only, that he agreed. "I'll try. With all those people around, it can't be that bad."

 

Mikko had been somewhat instructed in his role by the morning of the harvest festival. He had handled the apple basket and had been shown the orchard and the twelve individual trees in the circle. He did not, thankfully, have to climb them. He was also thankful that the ceremonial clothing was easy to move in. The crown was made of actual autumn leaves. He recognized oak and birch.

"Did you pick these leaves for any meaning to me?" he asked Seedling.

Seedling looked confused. "Were we supposed to? They were just chosen for shape and color, except for the oak. That is the one leaf we are always supposed to use in harvest festival decorations."

"No, I was just wondering. I appreciate the answer."

They walked together to the orchard, where they met the queen and the small group of people who would be climbing the trees to pick the apples for the ceremony. The queen signaled to Mikko to follow the apple pickers with the basket; she strode off to the center of the orchard to await them at a platform. As he collected the twelve special apples, one per tree, in the basket, he saw more and more people gathering around the trees as he and his group moved to each one. He did not see the princess at all in the crowd, nor did he see her with her mother waiting for him at the platform. Her golden-haired servant was there, however, following him with her gaze as he performed his duties.

He took the basket to the platform after the gathering of apples was completed. The crowd of court and otherwise was assembled in the orchard. They were all standing next to the trees in the circle, and so many of them were staring at him. He assumed this was because this was their first glance at the newcomer to the court and he had been kept absent from it for so long. He had never been nervous around crowds—his entire career had been built upon performing for crowds, and not just the hundreds here—but this particular crowd's presence was indeed making him nervous.

The princess's servant waved a hand at him to call him to her side. As he stood next to her, he could finally see how tall she was in comparison. She was easily well over two meters tall and the queen was even taller than that. He could see quite a few tall, willowy figures in the crowd so their height wasn't that unusual. He just felt very small.

The queen raised her arms. "We are gathered here in this orchard to give thanks for this marvelous growing season, for the harvests brought forth from these lands, and for our continued good fortune." 

She took an apple from the basket and sliced it in quarters with a small knife; she placed the quarters on the table. "This apple represents our harvest."

While Mikko was watching the queen, he hadn't noticed the princess's servant taking his right hand into her own. She abruptly pushed him to the table, grabbed his arm to put his hand over the apple quarters, and then sliced his index finger with a small knife, almost like a scalpel. His blood dripped on the cut apples. As she moved his hand away just as abruptly, blood dripped on the ground.

The queen picked up a slice of bloody apple. "As the blood on the ground in the spring will feed us in the winter, the blood I take in today is the promise of the gift given." She ate the slice.

Mikko felt sick. He had seen plenty of spilt blood in his career, even purposely-inflicted wounds, and yet this was the point where he felt revulsion at the sight of blood. His blood on the ice, fine, although it made him furious; this symbolic sacrifice disgusted him.

The servant had been holding his hand throughout this but had let it go. He looked at the finger that had been cut. There was no trace of the wound and he felt no pain. He was shivering, though; and in his preoccupation with his disappeared injury and his disgust, he had not been paying attention to the rest of the ceremony. It was over and the crowd had dispersed. Seedling was waiting for him outside the orchard. He was carrying a cloak. He had thought ahead to his needs, Mikko supposed; the closer it got to sunset, the colder it became, and he was still shivering.

The princess's servant had silently followed him. She took the cloak from Seedling and put it around Mikko's shoulders. "You need to stay warm, my jewel. You did so well for us today."

"Thank you."

She kissed him on the forehead. "Now off home with you. As much as I would like to bundle you up and take you with me, I know you would still not be agreeable."

He shook his head in agreement with that statement.

"I would keep you warm tonight, you know." She smiled sadly.

"This cloak and the feather quilt on my bed also keep me warm. With no surprises."

"You think!" She laughed and strode away.


	8. Chapter 8

Mikko was in the circle, facing off against Mark Scheifele. He was giving Mikko the weirdest looks and it didn't appear that anyone else had noticed. Scheifele had been chirping him all afternoon, if you could call it chirping; at this point it had devolved into them swearing at each other. It was getting tiresome, about as tiresome as the annoying music the Winnipeg arena sound guy insisted was the correct background for a game.

Mikko didn't have the capacity to do much more than glare at Scheifele across the circle. He was weary and run-down and had had enough of everything. Knocking into guys was at least alleviating some of the stress, especially hitting _this_ guy. It was one thing he had going for him this day while his team was falling apart around him.

The linesman dropped the puck. Mikko wasn't quick enough on the draw and his failed motion propelled him forward, making him collapse to his knees. The music was pounding in his ears and he had finally reached the breaking point.

He heard a large crashing noise and he woke up, his body in a tangle of sheets and a lock of his hair clutched in his fist.

 _Meg's gone and dropped something at breakfast and here I am, oversleeping and going over months-stale games in my head_ , Mikko thought. He had been dreaming of that rotten game for the last few days, with every dream changing the outcome in some way. The outcome, both in the real world and in his dreams, was never quite favorable for the Wild. That faceoff hadn't worked out in that same way during the real game, which was probably the last one he would ever play.

Seedling came in and looked at him with disapproval. "I will suggest to my lady that she begin plaiting your hair before bed. You look a fright and this is not the first time."

"I feel a fright. Bad dreams again."

"Hmm. That should not be happening. Perhaps it's the time of year; we are all a bit unnerved when the Hunt may ride."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Don't worry about that. We keep you indoors for many reasons, and that is certainly one of them."

Mikko pursed his lips. The dream had made him think of something. "Seedling?"

"Yes?"

"Why haven't I heard music? Only you and Meg sometimes humming and such? You're always talking about it."

"When humans play for us, it is different. Our music, when we play it, is for us. It is not what you are used to when you listen to human music."

"Also none of you I know are probably any good at it?"

Seedling chortled. "You are very blunt, Mikko. And very correct."

"I try to be right. Even when I'm wrong. And, oh, do I feel wrong right now."

"You will feel better after breakfast. And getting out of bed." Seedling glared at Mikko with a look he recognized. It looked like a direct copy of his own and definitely got the point across. It was time to begin the day.

 

After breakfast, the princess came by for her daily visit. She took out the pieces for a chess variant that used more and different pieces.

"We've just been playing the regular chess lately. I missed these different ones." Mikko looked forward to the variants as the change of the games each day made him far less bored. They had played mundane chess for at least six consecutive days. It made the days fade into each other.

"Oh, I am sorry about that. It was hard for me to concentrate." She set up the board. "I apologize for my recent distraction. All of our distraction, really. We are preparing for the rade and it is taking all of our attention."

"Raid?" he asked. "Like you are going out and attacking something?"

"No, it's a name for a procession we do every year at this time. All the court rides horseback and makes a circuit of our lands. It will take all day and all night."

"Will I be joining you?"

"You have never asked us about riding a horse, as being something you would like to do, and when I have crossed into your country I have not seen people riding them on the roads or having them pull your carriages. I assumed you did not know how to ride."

"You would be right. I rode a pony once when I was a child, but it was being led by an adult and it was tied up."

"It is really too bad. You would make a fine figure on horseback, but we haven't the time."

Meg had entered, bringing lunch. "And the last time, when our lady the queen let her human ride with us, it did not end well. You do remember what happened."

"Yes, I do, sadly." The princess picked up a mounted queen and moved it on the board. "So, Mikko, even if you could ride with us, we would rather you did not. So many bad things could happen to you besides being thrown from your mount. You will be able to watch us setting out from your window and you will stay nice and safe indoors."

Mikko picked up a pawn and looked at its featureless shape as he moved it. "It's a sight to see, then."

"You will not be able to forget it. All of us together and riding and walking. The colors alone should entrance you." The princess smiled.

"You're leaving me alone? Everyone will be out there?"

Meg laughed. "Yes, even me. You can take care of yourself for one day and of course you will be watching us so you will not be bored."

Mikko nodded. He was a bit sad. If he had known that this was a thing they did, he would have asked to prepare for it as well. He had been kept so isolated except for Midsummer and the harvest that he felt even more disconnected. He knew that the other faeries were very curious about him if the looks he had received at the harvest festival were an indication. He longed to at least see someone else even if he could not talk to them. This would fulfill that longing, but at a vast distance.

 

The day of the rade came. Mikko was awakened by the sound of an invisible chime and dressed himself in the half-light of dawn that was peeking through the windows of his bedroom. The rade would begin at full light and pass by the window of the great room soon after that. He didn't want to miss a thing if it was as spectacular as promised.

He sat on the sofa and waited. Soon, he saw the head of the procession, a tree-like creature holding a banner. He was followed by some of the faeries he had seen at the queen's gathering at Midsummer and at the harvest festival; after that came the queen and then his captor. Both of them were dressed in bright aquamarine and violet. The colors the other faeries were wearing were just as bright and were in an immense variety of hues. It was everything that was promised and more.

Mikko was able to see just how many kinds of people called this land their home. He was unfamiliar with most of the creatures he saw, other than the apparently magic animals. He could hear faint music coming from the procession as they passed. He finally understood why they had never let him hear the music. Even through glass, the sounds of it made him feel emotions he did not know how to describe and gave him visions of places he had never been.

He was too human for this music. He was too human for this world. As he kept watching, and looking for his princess and not seeing her at all, his eyes were wet. After what seemed like hours of watching, he decided to lie on the sofa and relax. Perhaps his princess would bring up the rear of the procession. He closed his watering eyes for just a moment.

 

Mikko was surprised to find himself in the Wild locker room. "Hey, guys," he called out, but no one appeared to hear him. It looked like there had been a lot of roster turnover over the offseason. The room just felt different.

He looked at the nameplates—Parise, Suter, Dubnyk, Brodin, Eriksson Ek, Granlund...all expected; Kunin, also somewhat expected; Greenway signed? And he was up already? No Scandella, no Haula, no Pominville, no...the expansion draft, trades, and free agency must have really thrown a wrench into the gears, not to mention his absence. There were names on these nameplates he didn't even recognize. Greenway was throwing tape balls at some kid sitting under a nameplate reading "Lodnia." The kid was directing them away from himself with a water bottle.

"Can anyone hear me? Anyone?" Mikko looked around further. At least there was no meticulously kept, untouched locker with "Koivu" above it. He knew he couldn't have dealt well with seeing that one. "Come on now, quit it. I'm back. Really."

Parise looked up from the skate he was lacing. He looked worn out and older. Mikko could imagine how rough his offseason must have been. "Did it just get really cold in here? Like, super cold?"

"It's the same in here it always is," Mikko said. There was no response. Parise went back to lacing his skates.

Granlund walked into the room and rushed past him on his way to his locker.

Mikko followed him and glared at him. "You're in a hurry, so much you walk right past me?"

Granny turned around and stood there staring, wide-eyed and pale with fear. " _Mikko_? How? You're gone...." He reached out to grab Mikko by the wrist, but before he could Mikko heard the most horrible scream he had ever heard, making him close his eyes in pain.

He came to awareness finding himself back, lying on the sofa, in his lonely suite a universe away from the Wild locker room. It was night and the court had long since ridden by his window. Outside was a pallid hag dressed in grey rags. She was pointing at him and screaming and screaming. There was a coldness in his gut and a fear even worse than his fear of his captor causing the blood to pound in his ears.

He knew, down to his soul, that he would die here.

* * *

Mikko Koivu had been missing for four years. He was declared legally dead by the state of Minnesota in March 2021.

The state had information about all unsolved missing persons cases online, and this one was no different; until they found something, it would never be removed. Despite many extensive searches, and the efforts of amateur online sleuths and even a few true crime podcasts that got interested in the case, no sign of him had been found in that time.


	9. Chapter 9

"I didn't see you," Mikko said to the princess when he saw her for the first time after the procession. "I looked and looked and then I must have fallen asleep and missed you coming by."

"I was riding, yes. I am happy that you looked for me but sad because you missed me. Were your dreams at least as wonderful as the sights you saw when awake?"

"The procession was wonderful, yes." Mikko did not want to tell the princess about the locker room vision or what he saw on awakening. "The dream has made me wonder. More hockey dreams again."

"The water will freeze over soon. Hopefully skating will ease your mind and make your dreams peaceful once more. I do hate it when you are not happy. Seedling has told me that you have not been sleeping well for some time before the rade and now for some time after." She frowned slightly.

"It's true. He says I've been making a mess of the bed."

"He told me that you were making a nest out of the covers, which is somewhat the same thing, is it not?"

"If he'd let me make my own bed instead of kicking me out of my bedroom so he could do it, maybe he wouldn't scold me so much for making a mess."

The princess giggled. "Oh, Mikko. That is just the way he is. He would make a poor valet if he was not particular about neatness. And you would not be you if you were not so grumpy about it."

"I like to be neat! I just don't like other people doing for me what I can do myself. I already feel useless enough."

"We all have our assigned tasks. Seedling's task is to take care of your person and your clothing. Meg's task is to take care of your meals and the rest of the cleaning. Your task is to stay right here and look nice and be a companion and playmate. You are very, very good at that."

"If you say so." He had his doubts about how good he really was but was pleased that she appreciated him. "You know, things you have said make me think, did you have anyone to be a friend to you?"

"It is hard when your mother is the queen. When you are young and none of you know anything about what is going on, you can have friends. But once people know, they want things. And, now, my mother does not share what she takes. But now I have someone of my very own who nobody else can have."

"At least I know now why you never let me alone, and you leave me here lonely. I would have liked to just sit and be quiet like you want me to be while listening to you and your friends. I did not know that the reason you took me was to be your only friend."

"It was not the only reason," the princess said, "but I cannot say that it was the one I was most looking forward to. It did work out well for that, because you cannot be used by anyone here."

He thought about all the things she had made him do since he was brought there. "Not without your leave, but that does not mean I am not used."

"I have good reasons. And you have been so good when I let you out. I think I will let you go on a little ride soon so you perhaps will feel less lonely and confined."

"What kind of ride?"

"Oh, a marvelous carriage! It will be so cozy for you. There are some ponds that you will need to look at to see if they will work for skating. I know it is hard to tell when they are not frozen yet but we always should think ahead."

He nodded. "Size and depth, yes. I would like to go look."

"And you shall, as soon as it can be arranged."

"Have you already been working on this?" Mikko tried to glower at the princess, but broke into a smile almost immediately.

"Of course. I only wanted to see your face when you were told it would be coming. And your smile is back, and so bright! I do hope this makes up for your being left all alone the other day."

"It does, yes. I'm sort of excited, actually."

"I knew you would be, which is why I am not telling you when it will be happening. Anticipation makes things sweeter."

 

A few days after that, Seedling came in that morning carrying a large bundle of winter outdoor garments. "Good morning. You get to go outside today. If I had known you may be going outside so much I would have ordered warmer clothing for you."

"I asked for sweaters at Midsummer," Mikko said. "Our lady does not like them."

"But you do, and you need to be warm. I will speak with her. This cloak should be warm enough over what I have put together for you this morning, and the carriage will also be heated, I believe. But if we are really to be skating this winter, you will need something else. The cloak is fine for walking but not much else."

"I trust you to get it right. Eventually. You seem to always do. But why are you so concerned about me being cold? I work on the ice every day for most of the year. I'm used to cold."

"Why, it is my lady's concern for you, not mine; ever since what happened when you came here, she is afraid of you taking ill. Humans are a bit more resilient than she thinks, especially in these lands, but you are...special to her. She wishes nothing adverse to happen and will take no risks."

"I've noticed that."

Seedling had finished laying out the garments, the brown cloak with its silver embroideries of birch trees taking pride of place on the clothing rack. "I am in fact surprised she wishes you to skate at all, but a promise is a promise and this may be a time where her need to see your happiness ensured outweighs her caution."

Mikko looked at the cloak and frowned. He was absolutely sure he hadn't told anyone the rest of his name and there was probably no chance they even knew what it meant, anyway. He hadn't even dared to speak Finnish here. In all the princess's questioning, she had never asked if he had been from any other place than Minnesota. She had assumed he had been from Minneapolis and had never questioned why his accent was unusual. He wished to give them no further way to manipulate him or control him.

"You are not pleased with your cloak?" Seedling asked. "What do you wish would be different about it?"

"There's nothing wrong with it." Mikko shook his head. "Just not what I'm used to."

"I think I understand but there is little I can do to make it more usual. Please just let me know if you are still cold when wearing these. I have given up on you actually _liking_ any of this, but at least we are now at the point where you are not hating it."

Mikko laughed. "I'm resigned to it. And you've learned something about me by now so you've stopped giving me so much ridiculous stuff."

"It does not mean it will not show up; just not as part of your normal fare. You really must start dressing now. The carriage will arrive soon and just because it will wait for you does not mean that people will not be displeased at a tardy arrival."

Mikko hastily dressed and was led out by Seedling through the usual vanishing exit from his quarters into the greensward visible from the window and towards the path to the gardens. The carriage was awaiting him at the garden path. It resembled something out of a fairy tale illustration, being made of blue translucent glass. He could see the outline of a figure inside it. There was no coachman. The two large black horses pulling the carriage turned their heads to look at him with staring red eyes. Mikko had to look away. The horses seemed to know what they were about and knew what he was about as well and he did not like it.

Seedling opened the door of the carriage. "Just come in. It is warm in there and you will not be alone. Hopefully you will find a suitable place to skate. Good luck."

"Aren't you coming with, Seedling?"

"It is not my place and to be honest I would be just a slight bit useless. It is far too cold for me right now! I prefer sunshine and indoors and I would have neither today."

Mikko climbed in the carriage and was met by a surprise. It was a surprise he should honestly have stopped having. The princess was not awaiting him in the carriage, but her tall blonde servant was. He could not get away from that woman and that woman, he feared, would never let him get away.

"It is a delight to see you this morning," she said. "Come sit next to me. I will bundle you safely and warmly in this fur covering until we arrive at our first pond."

Mikko obeyed the command and was duly wrapped in the large white and grey fur blanket. It felt like rabbit fur, but its patterning looked natural and as if it had been taken from one enormous, perhaps human-sized, rabbit. He shuddered.

"Oh, Mikko, you are cold already? Perhaps we should not even consider you skating if you take a chill so easily." She shook her head sadly.

"It was just a moment. It's passed."

"You need to tell me if you feel cold again, though. We do so worry about you."

He nodded and tried to look outside. He could see the shapes of trees through the walls of the carriage. There was no way of seeing the road or any other distinguishing features of the landscape. He tapped his foot against the equally translucent floor.

"I cannot tell what you are thinking," she said. "I can only tell that you are nervous. Everything attached to this carriage, even you to some extent, knows where we are going and what we are about."

He said nothing in reply.

"Why are you so silent today? This excursion was planned expressly for you. I had thought you would be happier."

"I'm usually happier when I know what's going on."

"We are riding to look at ponds. The route is planned. The roads are smooth and mostly straight. There is nothing at all for you to worry yourself over."

Mikko remained silent. The journey was never his worry; he had long known the purpose of the outing. It was her presence that was making him nervous.

"We will be at the first pond soon. I do wish you, at least, to get out of the carriage and look. We are doing this for you."

"I will get out. I thank you." He shuddered again; she put another blanket around him and drew him closer to her side.

"However did you play such a rough game? You are far, far too delicate for that. When we get out, you need to remember to draw the hood of your cloak over your head. Not only do I not want you to take even more cold, you need to protect yourself from the light."

"What light?" Mikko grumbled under his breath.

"No complaining now. We are here."

The carriage had stopped. Someone outside was holding the door open for them. The princess's servant exited the carriage first. Mikko untangled himself from the blankets and carefully stepped out of the carriage, but he tripped on the step and fell. She caught him before he hit the ground.

"Your exit was hard-won, and should be rewarded with this small excursion," she said, "but I am now reluctant to let you go out again. If you are this unsteady on your feet, I am not sure if you can skate."

"I'm fine, just feeling a bit weird from being in the carriage for a while. I'll be okay to walk." Mikko looked around. The horses had disappeared but there were two large, black-clad men whom he had never seen before with them. One had been the person opening the door of the carriage. Mikko may have been confused most of the time in recent weeks but he was willing to bet that the horses and the men were one and the same. The red eyes on both confirmed it for him.

"Let me guide you to the pond, then. Take my arm and we shall walk together." She smiled at him and held her arm out for him. He took it and carefully stepped on the still mostly-green grass.

"Be careful you do not slip on these wet leaves. Last night's snow melted so quickly. There should still be some ice left on these ponds, but please do not step on it! I may not be able to rescue you if you fall in." She looked back at the horse-men following them.

"I thought they were shallow."

"Mikko, my jewel, you should know by now what may be living below. It is not cold enough for them to sleep yet."

"All right, I promise not to go on the ice yet! I know what's under there, yes." He looked up at her, awaiting her reaction.

"Some of this summer has fixed itself in your memory, I see. But I see you have forgotten another promise. Stop, please."

"What is it now?"

"You said you would cover your head when outside, did you not?" She slowly pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. "I know, you just wanted to feel the air. And you are still so beautiful, with the faint light catching your golden hair, and perhaps you wanted me to see it. And now, your fair face in that dark frame...oh!"

Mikko stood still and tried not to shiver. Once again, it was not the cold.

"I would beg a kiss from you if I did not know how much you hated it." She shook her head. "Walk with me again and do try to keep up."

"The pond isn't that far," Mikko replied, "but the ground is squishy. I'm not like you; I can't glide over it!"

"You are not made for the outdoors, no matter how much you try to argue with us about it. You were created to keep inside a jewel box of a palace and to ornament it with your presence. But a promise is a promise. Lo, here we are at this pond."

"It's a jewel of a pond, really." It was lovely. It was surrounded by trees on all but one side and its size was large enough to make for comfortable turns and spins while skating, but smaller than a regulation ice surface. It was ideal for one or two people to skate upon. He doubted that they would give him any hockey equipment. Pond hockey for one was a miserable prospect, anyway.

"We still have several more to view but you appear to be enamored of this place."

"I'd like to have a cottage out here, to be honest. It's so quiet and peaceful."

"Looks are deceiving, but you are correct; I have sensed nothing. Neither have the kelpies." The horse-men had been wading in the slight amount of open water, apparently measuring the depths.

"Ah, so that's what those men are called. I was wondering why we didn't have a driver."

"That is exactly why. They know where they are going. Do not ever ride one, Mikko, unless you wish to drown."

Mikko shook his head. "I don't want to ride anyway, much less drown! Thanks for the warning."

"We should turn back now. There is very little light this time of year and I do not want to keep you out after dark. Come now; if this is the correct place for your skating, you will return to it as soon as possible."

Mikko followed her and the kelpies back to the carriage. He thought this little pond was perfect but understood that this excursion may be the last time he would be let out of his jewel-box prison, despite promises. He would put up with the ride and the companion and the hiking on mushy ground just to be out.

The second pond was larger, about the size of a normal European ice surface. In many ways, Mikko preferred playing on the big ice, but here it was just big lonely desolate ice. Not only that, but it was in a field devoid of trees. Looking at it just made him feel homesick.

"We need to go back," he said to his companion.

"Are you feeling ill?" She bent down to look into his eyes.

"No, it makes me uneasy. It's not even worth having your kelpie friends dive in. I don't think this pond would be good for them."

"Trust me that kelpies would be able to handle what is in there."

"Is what's in there usually _them_?"

She nodded and walked with him back to the carriage.

Mikko was getting sleepy by the time they reached the third and final prospective pond. The sun was approaching the horizon and everything was tinged in a cozy orange-pink light. This pond was between the sizes of the other two. There were trees nearby but farther away from the shore, and the ground was not farmed as it had been around the big pond but had been wild and undisturbed. This should have been the "just right" place but it wasn't. It still didn't feel right to him. Perhaps the dying water lilies on its surface were what gave him that feeling. It reminded him too much of the pond from that summer. He had noticed that pond wasn't even up for skating consideration.

He stood for a while looking at the pond and breathing the crisp autumn air. "It's a lovely pond but I think the first one we visited was the best. Also this one is so far out from where we started from."

"Yes, it is. We have a long journey back and it will be dark very, very soon. I need to return you safely home."

Mikko let himself be walked back to the carriage. He looked around with every step. If this was the last look he had at the outside, he would make it last. When he entered the carriage, his companion wrapped him once more in the fur blankets and sat next to him.

"I noticed you stopped showing that you were cold, but you were out there such a long time. I do not want you to take cold again on our way back." She put her arm around him. The shadows cast on their path made the carriage so dark inside he could barely see. "You will be safe if you sleep."

He fought sleep as much as he could, but he was warm and cozy and tired and somewhere along the way back he gave up.

* * *

The Wild retired Mikko Koivu's #9 on November 26, 2021 in a ceremony before their game against the Winnipeg Jets. It was as much a memorial as it was a number retirement. His parents and brother were in attendance, as well as some of his former teammates, both retired and not. Nick Schultz, Koivu's dearest friend from the Wild, gave the longest speech. Zach Parise, Koivu's successor as Wild captain, also spoke. Many more were featured in the video tribute. Few players who had actually played with Koivu were still active with the Wild. Ryan Suter and Nino Niederreiter were still there, as well as his former linemate Jason Zucker; Mikael Granlund had moved on in free agency to the Jets. It was a very emotional ceremony for everyone who had known him. It was the catharsis that both players and fans had not allowed themselves for four long years.


	10. Chapter 10

Mikko could see the snow from the window, or at least the half of the window he could still see through because of the high drifts of snow. He had known that the promise of being able to go outdoors and skate was probably just a little bit hollow, but he hadn't counted on the reason being the weather and not the changing moods of his captors. He was sure that the ponds, every single one of them, were completely iced over; and that the surfaces of most could have held up an entire team of kelpies, in addition to an out-of-condition hockey player in his mid-thirties. The problem to be solved was getting to those ponds through what had to have been at least a meter of snow that had fallen in the past month. This was like the snow he had been warned about in Minnesota but that he had never actually seen or experienced for himself; the legendary snows that happened when he was still a kid in Finland and living in a city that did not normally have snowfalls of nearly a meter in two days occur.

Extreme cold, on the other hand, was something he had definitely experienced in Minnesota. It was warm inside due to whatever amazing magical indoor climate control the faeries used in this immense dwelling. When Mikko pressed his hand to the picture window, however, he felt some sort of cold, the sort you'd only feel through a double-wall window if the outside was very, very cold. None of the snows had caused that peculiar icing-over of the trees that only happens when a wet, warm snow freezes very fast. Some of the trees he could see still had leaves on them, brown and shriveled and prevented from dropping.

The weather, in short, was completely inhospitable and thus it was completely unthinkable that anyone in charge of him would ever let him out to play in the snow, skate, or even breathe the air for a couple of seconds. So he looked out the window every day and patiently waited, more or less. It was getting to him. The princess had noticed and she was about to order that the window be covered. Mikko had begged her not to do that. It was the only thing he had begged for, that precious light of winter. They lived here, too, and how could they be unaffected by the lack of light? It was just another way his humanity was laid bare and their inhumanity illuminated.

It was in this winter that he appreciated his inertia on asking for the great room's furnishings to be changed. The bright orange and pink soft furnishings were still there, and the colors cheered him up in the dark gloomy days. When the sun was not obscured by clouds, its rays hit the crystals and glass in the room and the little refracted rainbows added even more cheer. Mikko could almost think he was happy at times. This place was certainly good for increasing his skills in making the most of a bad situation.

  


The bad situations, however, would always become worse. The princess stopped coming for her visits. "We are preparing for Midwinter," Seedling explained, "and she is and will be very busy."

It was yet another one of their holidays. At least he knew what time of year it was. Christmastime, buried by snow, cold, and general gloom, and probably unburdened by presents. He hadn't been home for Christmas since the lockout in 2012, but he missed being there anyway. Even without being able to go to their offseason homes, the lonely Wild teammates would flock together and do something for the holidays. "And what are we going to be doing?" Mikko asked. "There is always something you all are up to with me."

"Don't worry. You will not be involved in this like you were for the harvest festival. What I know we will be doing is decorating. You celebrate Midwinter, correct? With lights all around and an evergreen indoors?" Seedling shuddered when he mentioned the evergreen.

"Yes, we too cut down trees and put them inside and hope not to set them on fire with the lights." Mikko laughed; when he first was learning English the lights were called "fairy lights," which confused him when he came to the States and they were called Christmas lights no matter the use or the season. Fairies apparently only lit up in the British Isles and Australia. And, he supposed, here, where the fairies lit something up.

"No fires, and the tree will remain wet and not dry out. We use the cold lights you already know, the ones we use to light up rooms. They will pick up on all the glass in here and it will just be like it's sunny, and we know you like that."

"I do, and thank you for giving me some more light. When is it coming?"

"Probably later today," Seedling looked up, as if he was trying to recall something, "hopefully before sunset. It will be after sunset when you can see what magic it will make in here."

  


Seedling was correct in all ways. The Midwinter decorations arrived, were installed quickly by Mikko and Seedling working together, and lit by sunset. The tree was very small and was placed in a corner. The lights were multicolored on the tree and the lights placed around the window were a cold white. It did light the room well, not ever as bright as daylight, but enough to make the room feel cozy. Mikko found himself falling asleep in the room instead of in bed, which was fine with him. Since the princess stopped coming around, his sleep was restless and he could recall having dreams again even if the content of the dreams was indistinct. The lights in the great room made him feel safe and made his sleep slightly better. Despite the odd sleep habits, his thoughts were less muddled than they had been in the past. The last thing he really needed, though, was time and capacity to think and dwell on his captivity.

  


One morning, Mikko was awakened quite early, before dawn. If someone was going out of their way to get him up that early, things he wouldn't particularly like would be happening that day. It was odd, though, because lately he had been given enough warning for extraordinary adventures. This one came with no warning at all; it came with Seedling holding a soft blue light to Mikko's face as he rapidly blinked and wondered where on earth he was. (Not on Earth; not in bed; on a sofa, looking at a small glowing orb and the faint light of a waning moon reflected on snow.)

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, but the queen came to me far too early this morning with the notice that she has summoned you for a personal audience. I know she is not directly in charge of your keeping but it is in your best interest if you comply." Seedling frowned.

"And what does our lady have to say about that?"

"I haven't spoken with her for some time, due to the Midwinter preparations. I am sure that she would agree with me that you do need to come to this audience. You do need to remember your rules on how to behave when you are outside of our small circle, however. We are all devoted to her, of course, but she is...." Seedling hesitated.

Mikko supplied what he thought Seedling was about to say. "Quite dangerous, perhaps?"

"Yes. Dangerous and not to be flouted. And, as it is her first Midwinter without leading the ceremonies, also in need of some distractions which she may believe you are quite able and willing to supply."

"You can spell them out. I think I know what those are."

"Our uses of human distractions are far more complicated than just base instinct, Mikko. I have no exact idea of what she wishes to do with you and I do not even wish to speculate."

Mikko sighed. Yet another encounter where he had to be on his guard at all times and as aware as possible. It was a good thing he had been thinking straight lately.

"Don't sigh too much too soon. This is Midwinter and our original plan, well, mine which I had requested our lady for permission to do and it was granted, was to take you to my family Midwinter fire this evening. I hope this will come to pass. But in exchange, our lady has asked you to wear a special outfit for the occasion."

"Of course she has. There's always something ridiculous."

Seedling laughed. "I knew you would say that. The clothing may be all right, but after you dress I am supposed to thread some crystal beads into your hair. The entire thing is ice-themed."

Mikko put his face in his hands. "Do what you want. It's not like I have any control over it."

Seedling was more or less correct. The dark blue velvet frock coat had snowflake-shaped buttons and his shirt was trimmed with excessive amounts of silver lace, but it was fairly much in keeping with the Earth traditions of holiday outfit overkill. Mikko assumed he looked like someone out of an 18th century-set historical film as opposed to a fantasy one, which was an improvement. The beads in his hair, though, felt extremely ridiculous. Every time he tried to move a wayward strand, the beads scratched his dry palms.

When Seedling finally deemed him ready to go, he guided Mikko out through the vast palace to the queen's private chambers. It was no less confusing than the last time Mikko had been allowed to walk through it. There was really no way out without a guide or a map. Whatever route the princess or her servants used, he did not see another being around as they traveled. Either the route was obscure or others were told not to be out while he was moving about. Either were likely possibilities. The queen's chambers seemed to be as far from Mikko's as possible. It was a long, tiring walk for Mikko after so long idle and confined.

They finally reached their destination. Seedling stopped at the door. "It will only open for you. I must leave you here. When you are finished, I will be summoned to fetch you and lead you either back to your chambers or, hopefully, to our family's celebration. May fortune favor you, Mikko; I am sorely afraid you may need it."

Mikko pressed a hand to the door and it faded away at his touch. He walked through the open threshold into a small antechamber with glowing green walls. As soon as he passed through, the door rematerialized. He tried touching his hand to it again to see if it would let him out but the door would neither budge nor fade. A small green light floated near his eyes and then away again. He assumed this was something he was supposed to follow, and he did, through more thresholds and glowing chambers of various hues and then up a spiral staircase into a tower. The light faded at the end of the staircase, and there, in the tower's top, he was facing the queen in her territory.

This looked like her workroom; it was cluttered with books and shelves and jars and items of strange working and possibly stranger use. There were eight windows placed to possibly correspond with the directions of the compass. The faint light of a winter's morning shone through them.

The queen was standing there looking at him. She may have been waiting for Mikko to speak first. In that case, she would wait forever; he was not going to disobey his princess's ban on speaking. The queen finally greeted him. "I see you have nothing to say, Mikko. In any case, you have my greetings. Do not be afraid. Come closer in here, and look in this mirror. I know you have not seen one for a long time."

Mikko was transfixed by the mirror. The mirror was tall; tall enough to reflect the queen in her entirety. Why she had this mirror in this workroom he did not know. It seemed more appropriate for a bedroom or a walk-in closet, not in this tower full of books and strange objects. He stood in front of it and saw himself clearly for the first time in nine months. At this point, it wasn't much of a shock to see this strange, soft, ghostly creature wearing his face. He smiled slightly at seeing that he was so pale that his eyebrows were finally visible. His pallor was enhanced by the contrast of the dark blue frock coat he was wearing. He now understood why his clothes were colored and styled the way they were. The effect of all of it would be striking for anyone who saw him; a visual enchantment created with no magic whatsoever.

"Do you like what you see?" the queen asked.

Mikko turned his head to look at her. It wasn't a question of liking. He had no choice over what he looked like. Understanding why a thing was done was not in any fashion an approval of it. Looking at him seemed to make the princess happy and he would take that as his answer. He nodded.

"Is that all you see in the mirror? Yourself?"

He looked up in puzzlement with his mouth open. It was a mirror. There was nothing else to see.

"We were afraid over nothing, then. You are as uncomplicated as my daughter believes and as ordinary as she says you constantly claim to be."

Mikko couldn't understand what any of this had to do with a mirror. Was that the only reason they had never given him one, the reason he had no comprehension of whatever it meant? He gave the queen a goofy smile.

"Oh, I do wish you would speak to me. Step away from that mirror and come to me, please."

He walked over to the queen and stood rigidly in front of her. 

She unbuttoned his coat. "I would like you to take that off. I will not damage it; you will leave here, hopefully, as neat and orderly as you arrived."

He removed his coat and put it on the clothing rack next to the mirror. He hadn't noticed the rack before; it seemed to have materialized out of nowhere.

"Next, take off your shirt and any underclothing beneath it. Leave your trousers on. I am not particularly interested in what lies beneath there at this moment, so do not have any fears in that direction. I have been told how nervous you are about that."

Did he have any secrets left from these people? Of course he didn't. Every person he was with and was told to trust was an eye and ear, no matter who he ostensibly belonged to here. He was cold after removing all that clothing. It most definitely felt like a cold midwinter afternoon in that tower now.

The queen smiled. "Oh, she did do a wonderful job with you. I assume everything below is the same color, correct? Ah, that blush of yours does answer. Such a lovely pink and white you are. And gold." She reached out and grabbed a lock of his hair. "I do not think she is quite done here with the length, but everything else about it is excellent. You look like one of the dolls she used to have as a girl, you know."

Mikko felt like a doll a great deal of the time when he was with the princess, so that wasn't as surprising as it should have been. He was even standing there doll-like and motionless.

The queen let go of his hair and started patting and squeezing his upper arms. "You still try to exercise, don't you. If I tell you to stop, you will probably not listen to me, but perhaps you will listen to her if she tells you to."

If he didn't try to exercise, what else could he have done day after day? It gave him something to do in the increasingly few moments of the day where he was left alone. Mikko shook his head.

The queen had moved down to his chest and stomach. "You seem to have forgotten about this part, and just as well. A very good job indeed. I will stop there. I doubt there is anything else I need to look at that is still clothed. She could not very well start changing what she has never seen or touched."

What did that mean? He was disgusted. Of course the princess had never seen him unclothed. Or even just with his shirt off, for that matter. Seedling had, but he didn't feel like anything Seedling could have done would have entered in this strange, one-sided conversation.

"You can start putting on your clothes now." She frowned. "Do you need to be commanded to do everything?"

Mikko shrugged and started dressing. Of course he didn't, but with these people, why give them an excuse to do something to him if he took his own initiative? It wasn't worth it.

"You are so very quiet," the queen said. "I know she did not take away your voice because she keeps saying how she loves to listen to you read, and how your laugh, as rare as it appears to be, gives her so much delight. But for all she appears to be afraid of you disobeying her, perhaps she should have taken it. I will tell her that she has no worries on that front. You are the most obedient human I have ever known. If only more of them had been like you, we would have had fewer troubles."

He had never wanted to breach the subject of the other humans. He knew the princess had had little contact with them as they, as she said, belonged to her mother but he had been afraid to ask what she did with them when she was tired of them. It perhaps was a thing the girl did not know or even care to know. He kept his head down and his gaze on the floor.

"Do you love my daughter?" the queen asked suddenly.

Mikko started to nod, but then smiled and shrugged instead. What did she mean by love? What did he mean? He cared for the princess and wanted to be good for her, but it was not the same as what he had previously known as love. It was neither romantic nor familial. Even if he could let himself talk to the queen, he didn't have the words to explain how he felt in any of the languages he spoke.

"Your gestures have spoken almost everything I need to know. Does she have your devotion?" Her gaze bored into him.

He enthusiastically nodded at this question. That was the word he would have used in answer if he had been allowed to speak. He still wasn't sure of why she had his devotion, despite his suspicions, but it was definitely there.

She smiled sweetly. "She has done most excellent work indeed with you. I will need to tell her tomorrow after I see her. She is leading our Midwinter ritual this year, the first time she has done so. It is a sign of my trust in her. And as a sign of my trust in you, I know you will not speak of this meeting between you and me to her. She will know that it has happened but you are not to tell her of what has happened. But I doubt you would, you silent creature of the ice that you are. I assume the clothing choice was hers, and it is very inspired."

Mikko nodded in reply and tugged at one of his bead-bedecked strands of hair.

"It is nearing sunset, little ice prince, and out these windows we shall be able to see the fires of Midwinter being lit throughout my lands. Come sit with me in my chair, and we will look west upon the sunset, and my daughter, and this palace's fire being lit."

The chair only had enough room for one, the queen, and she sat upon it. Mikko stood next to her and looked out the window.

"Mikko, I did ask you to sit with me," the queen said in irritation as she smoothed her silvery skirts. "Come, sit here on my lap and watch. The view is the same and you will not be as cold. And I imagine you are weary of standing, are you not?"

He was, but there was nowhere more humiliating for a grown man to sit than on the lap of some strange woman. He didn't feel the strange feeling he did when he was tempted to disobey the princess, but neither did he feel particularly inclined to feel the queen's wrath at disobeying her. He sat on her lap, trying not to get too close, but she pulled him to her. The top of his head barely reached her shoulder.

"Oh, you are so cold, just like ice. Do not squirm so much like a child. See, there is the glorious sunset and soon will be the glorious fire."

Mikko drew his gaze away from her face and towards the window. The sunset was indeed spectacular from the tower vantage point. He felt himself warm in the queen's tight embrace. Unlike his encounter with his princess's servant, the queen's embrace was maternal and protective and relaxing.

"You are not used to being the smallest person in a room, are you?" She smoothed his hair back. "If you were with the court every day as I would have meant you to be, you would have been. And we would have taken such good care of you, precious little winter-gift, bringer of spring."

Mikko nodded and pointed at the fire being lit below.

"Oh, it's starting. Let us watch the ritual, even if we cannot hear it. And after that, I will have some mulled wine brought to us for the evening. That is a treat you have not had, I see. A nice warming Midwinter treat for you."

They watched the ritual, even though Mikko had no clue what was going on and no feasible way to ask what it was. He wondered if writing things to people would defy the ban on speaking; since he was never offered anything to write with, he assumed writing was covered in the ban. That made him sad. Remembering that he was missing Seedling's family celebration for this also made him sad.

The queen noticed. "Mikko, there are tears unshed in your eyes, and these are not meant to happen. Here is our wine for us, hot. I have my glass, which is my own; and here is yours, so much smaller. Drink and be merry."

Mikko drank slowly and felt more warmth go through his body. He also felt incredibly sleepy. He noticed the queen had barely sipped from her own glass, which was placed on a small table next to the chair. He felt the queen take his empty glass from his hand as he slipped away into quiet, dreamless, painless sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Mikko awakened the next morning feeling exceptionally groggy and stiff. He was in his bed in his chambers and couldn't remember how he had managed to make his way back from the queen's workroom. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in her lap as he saw the light from the burning fires outside start to wane. He had been dressed in his nightshirt and the beads had been entirely removed from his now neatly braided hair. He couldn’t remember this happening at all. He had slept but it had been dreamless. The light coming through the windows looked like midday.

“You’re finally awake,” Seedling said as he entered the room. “It’s been almost two days.”

“How did I get here?” Mikko asked.

“I had no hand in it. I was told not to wait for you and to go home and the next morning I found you here. Someone else dressed you and took care of your hair before I arrived. I am not about to ask who, or how.”

“Whoever or whatever it was, it was as efficient as you usually are.”

"We who serve the court are trained to be efficient. The court, on the other hand...well, I assume you have learned that by now in your limited observations."

"They do what they like. I only wish I could remember what was done to me." Mikko hadn't had a gap in his memory before. Fuzzy thinking, yes; but not a mysterious gap, other than his long sleep on coming there.

"It is best not to delve too deeply into that. I do wish to let you know that you were missed."

"There's always next year, Seedling. I'm not going anywhere."

Seedling did not answer him; he was busy in Mikko's wardrobe looking for something. After a few minutes he slammed the doors and sighed. "I had thought I had requested sweaters, but I do not see any. Perhaps I also forgot."

"Or some things around here need to be done by hand. Things may be in progress. I'm warm enough."

"The snows may be melting a bit and even if we are not able to go to skate yet, you are supposed to be allowed outside soon. And I have been told, constantly, that you must be warm at all times."

Mikko smiled. "You probably weren't supposed to tell me that. And I think I have enough things that I can layer them."

"We will see. And I still need to find you another warmer pair of boots. The ones you have will not do for snow."

"You can find anything! I believe in you!"

Seedling sniffed as he laid out Mikko's clothes for the day. "Someone has to."

  


Mikko was not allowed outside that day, or for some days after. The snowdrifts outside his window decreased in size as the days got longer. They were still large; it was not an exceptionally warm month, but warm enough for some snow melt. One day, he noticed that someone had cleared a small path near the window, in the space where they normally had walked during the summer. The next day, he was told to dress for a winter excursion, with a new pair of shiny black snow boots awaiting him.

Mikko was excited about going outside. He couldn't believe that such a simple thing was the most thrilling thing in his life right now. This place had changed him so much.

"You can step outside on your own and walk," the princess told him after he got ready. "We can all watch you from the window and stay warm. Also, I know you would throw snow at me and I do not wish to have snow thrown at me."

"I would only throw snow if you threw snow at me first." Mikko still remembered having to play tag in the spring mush.

"Why would I throw cold things at you? Now remember, if you get too cold, come in right away!"

"I will. I am surprised you are letting me out alone."

"We are only at the other side of the window. You are not out of my sight."

As Mikko stepped through the opening into the snowy path, he winced at the bright sunlight and the cold wind hitting him in the face. He had been so long indoors that he was not used to either. He walked a little way on the path, willing himself not to look back at the window and at the princess and Meg and Seedling watching him in the snow. He remembered the promise he had given to the princess on the first day they met, not to go out without any of them with him. Mikko did not break the promise, he didn't think, because he had been told to go out on his own. But now, unlike then, he had no desire to escape or even wander far out of sight. He knew that there was no exit from this world and that so many dangers awaited him beyond the fields he knew or even in the fields he did. Breathing the cold air was refreshing but the sunlight hurt his eyes and each step he took felt like taking twelve. He still longed to skate, would always want to engage in the activity that had become almost as inherent to his life as walking, these last thirty years. Mikko was afraid to, though, because it had been so long and even this little activity was tiring. He had become what the princess's servant thought he was; a spoiled, timid little creature, fit only for the indoors and quiet, inactive indoor pleasures.

Mikko turned around to go back, forcing a smile on his face as he faced the window. The only thing worse than going outside, especially in this barren wasteland of featureless blank snow, was never being allowed to do so again.

  


Every day after that unless it was snowing or exceptionally cold or windy, Mikko was made to go outside for a short time. Nobody joined him. He walked out, looked around, occasionally picked up snow in his gloved hands, and returned. He assumed that this was all in preparation for his ever-promised trip to the skating pond, toughening him up for winter in ways he had never presumed he would ever need.

The small trips out were not particularly enjoyable, but Mikko supposed it was because they were boring and lonely. Seedling could not take the cold and general lack of light; it was essentially a dormant season for whatever sort of creature he was and the artificial environment of the indoors was like a greenhouse for him. The princess said she would join Mikko for the skating, but not for the snow walks; she was still afraid of the snowballs that Mikko would be forever too timid to throw. Meg said nothing, only kept to her brownie tasks and supporting her mistress's decisions. He had no idea if she would join them or not, if the skating day ever came, which it felt as if it never would.

  


One morning, Mikko felt a small hand on his shoulder, shaking him awake. He awakened normally to the first rays of sunshine coming into the window, every morning earlier and earlier as spring approached. Getting him up early always meant that something was going to happen.

"Today is the day," Seedling said, "where you will go to skate. The weather is a perfect windless gloom, and our lady says this is ideal for you. The sun will not hurt you or shine in your eyes and the wind will not make it colder and make your movements difficult."

Mikko blinked. Of course he wasn't allowed out in the sun; the princess had observed him through the window every day when he went on his small outdoor walks and she noticed how much he blinked and grimaced when it was sunny. He had thought of suggesting eye black, like he had used in the outdoor game a few seasons back, but then he remembered how much some of his American teammates had teased him for his peculiar application of it. He hadn't played baseball; how was he to know how it was done?

"I have a special set of clothing for you. I finally received that sweater I requested and I am almost sure you will like it." The cold lights had been lit and Seedling was laying the clothes out at the end of the bed.

"Almost sure? I like sweaters; is there something that could possibly be wrong with it?" Mikko stretched as he got out of bed.

"I never know what it is with you and what you like, especially if it's been made for an event of some sort. We've been down this road before."

Mikko stood at Seedling's side and looked at the sweater. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It was thick and had an interesting pattern of cabling; it was a rich, dark green almost the exact shade of the Wild's third jersey. A pair of tight-looking knit trousers the same color was laid out next to the sweater, along with thick white socks with red stripes at the top. "How did you choose these things?"

"They're all colors you seem to like and the clothes are easy to skate in. Are they all right with you?"

Mikko blinked to prevent his tears from flowing. "More than all right. You had no way of knowing, I see. It's the same color I wore at home to play."

"No, I did not know that. Are you sure you are all right? Can you wear these, or is it going to be a problem?"

"I will wear these, and it's not a problem. I appreciate them." He remembered not to thank Seedling just in time. He didn't know if green men were subject to the same rules as brownies but it was better safe than sorry.

"You need to wear the black winter boots. I do not have your skates. I think they are at the pond. From what I have heard, you will enjoy what has been set up for you. I obviously have not gone to see it."

"You'd go all brown and limp, yeah?"

"Not quite, but the actual outcome would be something I would greatly dislike. You really need to get ready. The princess is coming to take you--herself--and I know you would hate to keep her waiting."

Seedling was correct; Mikko was happy that it wasn't her servant and he hated to disappoint people he mostly liked. He got ready and followed Seedling out of the building again into the courtyard where he had boarded the carriage to explore for ponds some months before. The same carriage was waiting, pulled by kelpies again--possibly the same kelpies--but the figure he saw inside was much smaller. This time he was able to get inside on his own and was happy to see that not only was it the princess inside waiting for him, but the blankets on the seats were the normal wool variety.

"You are early! I am glad to see you here and that you look happy! Your sweater looks lovely and warm. You seem pleased with it." The princess smiled at him.

"I am pleased. It's very comfortable. It's like the things I miss from home." Mikko smiled back.

"It will not take very long for us to get to where we are going. I think you will like what is there. I will be watching you skate but I will not be joining you. And I do trust you not to throw snow at me."

"I will not throw snow at you. But why don't you want to skate?"

"I have not done it before and I don't want you to waste your precious time skating on teaching me how to do it. You need to enjoy yourself today."

"I'd enjoy teaching you and there's always another day in another winter."

"There may not be another day this winter that is so perfect. Please, just enjoy yourself. I will enjoy watching you."

  


When they finally arrived at the pond, it looked different. A small wooden shed had been built next to it and a bench was outside it. "Is this why it took so long for us to go do this?" Mikko asked. "Not just the weather, but the shed?"

The princess clapped in excitement. "Yes. I was able to keep this a surprise for you! You get so cold and you really needed a place to come inside to warm up. Go into there first. Meg is waiting inside for us, and in there are your skates."

Mikko looked around for the skates but all he could see on the table were a set of blades that didn't look like it could fit into any of the skates he normally used. "The blades are here, but where are the skates?"

"Those are the skates," Meg replied. "They clamp on to your boots. We will take these outside and put them on when you sit on the bench."

Mikko had never really thought of what skates had looked like decades ago, before the blades were integrated into the boot. He remembered little plastic roller skate wheels that clamped on to shoes; this must be something like this except stronger. They definitely looked old. He wondered where they came from as he clamped them onto his boots. They held tighter than he had thought they would.

The pond had been cleared of snow. He saw no traces of hockey equipment in the shed or anywhere near the pond. This was just going to be a skating day out, then, which he was actually thankful for. The resemblance of his skating costume to the Wild uniform was bad enough; being given some archaic facsimile of a hockey stick would have just been too much for him to handle. This trip was intended to bring him joy but it was probably going to bring him just as much pain.

Mikko stood up and got onto the ice. It had been too long and the skates were unfamiliar; he skated forward a bit and fell. His body didn't feel right. It seemed to be an odd shape and size and just not at all what he had been used to. It was what ten months of low activity would get someone to, and he didn't like it a bit. He got up, skated a bit more, and fell again. After a few repeated attempts, he was tired and cranky and just wanted things to be normal again. He finally got the hang of both self and skates and slowly skated around the pond. He really had missed this, just the movements of skating without a stick, without aim, without thinking about the next game. It was freeing at the same time it was sad.

The princess had watched him on the bench for a bit but after the third fall she had gone back into the shed. Either she was cold or she couldn't stand to see him fall. It could be both. Mikko was getting a bit cold and tired and thirsty and decided to head back into the shed to warm up and refresh.

A hot mug of something was awaiting him in the shed. "It's like you read my mind," he said.

"We are cold and tired too!" Meg said. "And we both know you would be as well."

Mikko took a sip. It tasted like some sort of herbal tea, floral and sharp in the same drink. He had been hoping for hot chocolate but he couldn't remember eating chocolate anything in his time there; like coffee, it was probably another thing they didn't have. "This is different."

"It is warm and that is all that is needed. We like it," the princess said.

"It's better than the last warm drink I had." That one was whatever the queen had dosed him with. He was sure that whatever she had drunk was not the same thing he was given.

"I haven't given you anything warm," Meg said.

Mikko realized he had said too much and didn't say anything further, continuing to drink his tea until it was gone.

"I think we may be done here," the princess said. "It's getting more windy."

Mikko hated to agree with that; he had wanted to do some more skating. He didn't think he was up to more cold and battling the wind, though. "I had fun today. It will be great to do it again."

"We will see, or the weather will see for us. I am glad you had fun. You were smiling after you fell, so that was a start!"

He hadn't realized he had been smiling or that she was watching. For a brief moment, he had actually forgotten where he was, and was just a lone person doing what he loved most. He knew he probably wouldn't be able to forget that again.


	12. Chapter 12

There was no second skating day. The weather proved worse again; more snow came and once again Mikko felt trapped behind a wall of white. It looked like spring would never come. It was back to the old familiar indoor routine of too many board games, too many storybooks to be read, and too many clothes to dress up in. He said to himself that he would never complain about being too cold outdoors again. It felt like weather's revenge.

Mikko found himself, on one of those cold, snowy nights, reading a very heavy storybook to the princess. She sat next to him on the sofa and turned the pages as he read. The book was extensively illustrated. This had been a gift to her created by one of her mother's pet humans, but how many years before this she had no idea. It had always been there. It looked old to Mikko, but so many things there were deceiving. The illustrations were clever but the plot and story were lacking and the words were simple. He couldn't imagine reading this book to any earthly child he knew unless it was for some sort of English-learning exercise.

He finished reading to the end of a chapter and took a deep breath. He was so incredibly bored by this and it appeared that the princess was too as she did not turn to the next page. "I think that's enough for tonight," Mikko said.

There was no response from the princess but a soft snoring noise. "Oh, you fall asleep first, yeah?" Mikko asked. Her head was pushing against his shoulder. "You should have picked something less boring. Don't know how you can stand listening to me, anyway."

There was still no response. Her eyes were closed. Mikko reached over to move her hair out of her face. "I always think it's amazing how you can fold those wings up like they're not there." He took a second look. The wings _weren't_ there. That was odd. He knew the wings were real because he had felt the air they displaced as they moved; he had never dared to touch those impossibly delicate things. He didn't want to hurt his princess.

Maybe he was just so tired that he was now seeing things. That made sense. He did not want to retire to bed because that would mean waking the princess up. He did not even want to move. He carefully closed the book on his lap and leaned back to try to catch a little sleep himself. If she moved, he could then get up. She was small; despite his weakened body, he thought he could still lift her and carry her into his bedchamber. She could get a good night's rest on his bed and he would sleep on the sofa; that wasn't a problem at all. He shut his eyes against the light and tried to slip away into slumber. It was not occurring. The weight of the body pressed against him felt heavier. Had she moved? Mikko opened his eyes to look. What he saw made him jump to his feet, dashing the book to the ground. The princess was no longer there. In her place was her loyal and malevolent servant, looking at him with impossibly blue and unfocused eyes.

"Mikko, what is wrong?" she said in a childish voice. "I am sorry I fell asleep. Your voice is so relaxing."

"Why are you here? What did you do with her?"

"With what? You are confusing me. I have been the only one here."

"Oh...this means...oh, it's been you all along, hasn't it. Since the first day. She was never real." Mikko was disgusted with her and himself. He rushed into the bathroom to be sick.

The princess called to him from the other side of the bathroom door. "Come out of there and let me explain."

Mikko emerged from the bathroom reluctantly. He did not want to face her even though he was mildly curious about her explanation. "You commanded me, so here I am."

"Oh, you look so defeated! Do not be. Ask me anything and I will answer as well as I can."

"Why did you take me in particular?"

"It was my first time doing something like this. I was seeking for special talents but I did not specify which kind, so my seeking did not find a musician or a poet. My seeking was for someone who would be talented and beautiful to me, and it found you. I did not lie to you. You were always everything I had wanted from the start."

Mikko blinked. "I don't understand still. Why the hiding your real self from me?"

"Bringing you here was so difficult. You came that morning when I called but you would not turn from the road no matter what I tried and there were others around so I could not show myself, so I tried something else to bring you in and it hurt you so badly and I am sorry. You came, and you do not remember this; but as I was healing you, you were screaming in some peculiar tongue none of us here do know and you tried to hurt me. And we know that now, our kind in your world are seen as only pretty little girls with wings, and I thought that in that shape you would not be afraid of me. I did not want to leave your side and this was the only way I thought I could remain."

"I cared for her—you—I think."

"Yes. I wanted to make you happy with being here, and when I was with you in that shape, I could see how happy you were. You were so protective and you endured my silliness because it made others happy. It showed me that what I knew of your character was true."

"You made me love you like that, I don’t think I had any control over it, and I was still scared and I think you did something to me that makes me want nothing more than to please you. I am not that man, when I’m normal."

"I did that because I cannot bear to see you like this! You are angry and I only want to see your smile." She began to cry.

Mikko felt sick again. He came close to her and reached up to wipe her tears away only to stop himself. What was he doing? He did not want to see her unhappy either and he had no idea whether this was a true desire born within him or something he had been manipulated into wanting over the past eleven months. "Can you understand why I am so angry? I was ripped away from my life and put here and I do not know if my feelings are even my own anymore."

"It was easier for everyone. You know this. Come close, my jewel."

He actively tried to resist her command but could not. Disobeying made him feel awful, but obeying her, to stand before her, felt like the best feeling in the world.

She drew him into her embrace and stroked his head. "You won't run away from me this time, will you?"

"Not now. I can't." He wept.

"Do not cry. I will only hold you like this. I promised, remember? I know you are shy and reluctant and I am so, so sorry."

He tried his hardest to stop crying but he was in despair. He finally obeyed, but it was so difficult.

"There, you see, it was not hard at all, was it?" She smiled at him. "Now, you get ready for bed, and I will be right back. You will wait for me to return."

He dressed for bed and sat on the end, in nervous anticipation. She was true to her word and entered his room. She was wearing a long white flannel nightgown embellished with violet ribbons. It was nearly the twin of his own simpler nightshirt.

She sat atop the bed, behind him, and began to braid his hair. "Did you think I would forget to do this? And you are so very tired, it will not be long now until you fall asleep."

He was tired and the calming action of his hair being brushed and braided did indeed make him more tired. He was nearly asleep by the time it was finished. He scooted himself on top of the bed and pushed backwards to the pillows and set his head down. He could feel her body behind his, wrapping her arms around him and drawing him close, as he finally drifted into slumber.

  


Mikko awakened the next morning alone. He remembered a warm body next to him in the night, a heartbeat he could feel alongside his own vibrating through the bed covers, but it was gone. Had he dreamed the previous night? Everything was fuzzy and he was so cold and lonely. Seedling should have been there by then, from what Mikko could tell from the position of the sunlight in the room. He looked at the spot in bed next to him; there was a soft indentation in the pillow and a piece of a violet ribbon on the covers. It was no bad dream; everything he had experienced here was both true and false at once, and he sobbed bitterly. All joy was over and he had no idea how to recover it.


	13. Chapter 13

Mikko looked at his new quarters in dismay. That previous sad night was the last one he would ever spend in his old rooms. He already missed the view outside of the picture window. Despite his dislike of some of his old rooms’ features, they had become familiar. They would never become home, ever-he still occasionally awakened in confusion, expecting to see the furniture in his bedroom in Minnesota-but they were as close to a home as he would ever have again. Now even that had been taken away from him.

These new rooms had, unlike the previous set, been definitely decorated with Mikko in mind instead of a generic occupant. However, they had been intended for the Mikko the princess wanted him to be instead of the man he actually was. There were no windows in the bed chamber. The single bed was long and narrow; its covering was made to look like a carpet of pale violet flower petals. The adjoining bathroom was much the same as his old one. The bed chamber was off to the side of a solar that adjoined the princess’s rooms. He feared he would never be out of her sight, or the range of her touch, again.

The rooms were in some higher part of the palace. He could see the snow-covered hills and their bud-fuzzed trees in the distance out the window of the solar. The solar had been decorated with the same colors and fabrics that had normally been chosen for his clothing, including the unnecessary frills and floral motifs. The furniture had been scaled to taller people, unlike the furniture in Mikko’s old rooms. He had sat in the larger of the two upholstered chairs and his feet had dangled about five centimeters off the floor. It seemed like something that had been built for a person like the queen, rather than himself. Everything else was fine and actually rather comfortable, albeit overstuffed.

"She will be busy, you know," Meg said as she brought him his dinner. "I expect you will be left alone most of the time."

"I expected her here already. She is not."

"You already know what she is; now that you do, she has rejoined the rest of the court in their daily activities."

"And why am I not allowed to join them?" He remembered what the queen had said and what she had wished to do with him if he was hers.

"I am only her servant. As I believe you also are. We are not for that glittering company." Meg finished putting out his dinner and quickly left.

  


What Meg had said was true. The princess no longer ate dinner with Mikko, nor did she visit him after to brush his hair. She did occasionally visit in the morning as he was getting ready for his day; she would command him to sit silent and motionless in wait for her, looking out the window at the slowly developing signs of spring outside. She came back around midday to free him from her commands, and then he did the same things he did in his old rooms until the night. He frequently awakened in the night, in fear, immobile. His bedchamber was dark and in that darkness he filled it up with horrors. Mikko started to nap in the daytime.

  


On one of those sleepless mornings, Mikko was awake as Seedling came in with that day's assigned outfit. He saw Seedling as his one and only loyal friend. Seedling had never failed to be as honest with Mikko as he had been allowed to be, and he appeared to empathize with Mikko's distress at his new situation and surroundings. He never failed to play chess with Mikko in the afternoons and would tell him stories about his wife and children. This new openness was the only bright spot in his day.

Seedling was frowning at the clothing. "She has left me these instructions. I know you will not like them! And it is going to take me absolutely _forever_ to do this, which is why I am here so early."

"Seedling, you know that I have no idea how early anything is without having a window. The only way I can tell is by going outside of here. I'm awake, I was awake when you got here, that is enough."

"If she had another personal servant, she would have these quarters. Her current maid has much larger ones with a window. I am surprised you still haven't met her, unless you have and have not chosen to remark upon it?"

Mikko shook his head. "I meet no one, talk to no one, see no one. Not even a figure upon those greening hills."

"I am sorry that it has to be this way. I do not think she understands how lonely you are."

"It is even worse now. If only...I do not want her here, but I do want her here, because her not being here has made it worse. My routine is gone."

"And here I am off to make your routine worse. Hurry up and get dressed, because I have things to do with your hair."

"More beads again?"

"No." Seedling held up something that looked like a curling iron. "But it is probably going to take just as long. So hurry."

Mikko dressed as quickly as he could. That day's offense to his taste was a bright green velvet suit with knee breeches trimmed with lace. It was similar to his frock coat from Midwinter in materials, but not in construction; it was tight-fitting and emphasized that he was very far out of his normal playing shape. He was going to have to find a way to get out of this pretty jail and get some physical activity in, no matter what, once spring actually showed up. If he had been calculating the days correctly, his thirty-fifth birthday was rapidly approaching. He looked twenty and felt fifty. Mikko put on the matching slippers and frowned at their crocus and snowdrop embroidery. They reminded him of kids' shoes. He walked out to the solar to see what Seedling had been ordered to do to him that day.

Seedling worked on Mikko's hair for what seemed like hours. His hair had become absurdly long, past his waist, and to the point where he was accidentally sitting on parts of it on occasion. When Seedling was done with it, his hair had been curled into ringlets and secured away from his face with a bow.

Mikko went into the bathroom to look at himself and started laughing. He was one of the most ridiculous things he had ever seen. He was not feeling humiliated, he was feeling amused. "She wanted me to look like this?"

"That was what she said. I obey, just like you."

They heard tinkling laughter from the solar. The princess was there and waiting for them.

"You look lovely, Mikko," she said. "Now please sit in the big chair for me, cross-legged, and wait until I return. Do not move and make no noise! Seedling, you are dismissed for the day until you are asked for."

Mikko did as he was told and sat in the enormous chair. He wondered if weeping would count as movement. The tears would wreck the fine velvet suit, though, and he did not want to be scolded for that.

The princess came back some hours later with the queen in tow. Mikko tried very hard for surprise not to show on his face. Another visitor had come, albeit one he was not allowed to interact with. The queen looked very majestic that day in her golden gown. She smiled at Mikko. The princess, who had positioned herself behind her mother, looked nervous.

"Ah, this is what you had wanted me to see today. Your completed work, right in time." He had never seen such a grin on the queen's face.

"Yes, Mother, it is done. Come closer to him. He won't do a thing unless I tell him to, so don't be afraid to touch."

The queen had already come closer and had picked up one of his ringlets. "There's just so much of it, and styled exactly. You did make the perfect living doll, didn't you?"

The princess finally smiled. "Yes, he is so perfect. So very perfect. Just look at him! He will go where I ask, and will stay wherever I like, and will wait for me all day in nearly motionless silence. And then once I command him, he will do whatever I would like him to do. Mikko, it is fine to greet her in words; please do so."

"Hello, your highness," he said in an affectless tone.

"Why, hello. Your voice is nothing like I had expected. I had thought it would have been something light and melodious; but if this pleases my daughter, it is acceptable."

"If I only had more time, I could have worked on that. But I grew to like it." The princess beamed at her mother.

Mikko was burning in rage inside. This entire ordeal was a secret project of some sort, where the reasons the princess had told him he was taken didn’t seem to matter? But she could not lie, so there had to be something deeper to this. He couldn’t think of what it could be. He was thankful that this project had appeared to have a time limit to it. He had already been changed in too many ways. To change his voice, which he so rarely got to use, would have been one change too far.

"Oh, Mikko, do not look so distressed! You are beautiful and perfect." The princess bent over and squeezed him tightly. "My precious little porcelain doll."

"I had thought at first you were trying to make your perfect lover,” the queen said. “As I have, before. But then you persisted on playing the child and making a child’s toy."

"That is the way I had started but I took the wrong person. He showed too much fear and I had promised him that I would not make love to him. So this is what he became and shall stay. Either way, he is still so dear to me."

"Are you able to do what is needed, when the time comes?"

"Yes. And he will follow me wherever I lead." The princess's expression was resolute.

"Of that I have no doubt, truly. You have succeeded." The queen nodded at her and Mikko and took her leave.

Mikko had not been commanded to do anything so he sat there, being the perfect doll, until the princess remembered he was there.

"You can get up now. Do what you like in here; I have things to do elsewhere." She left him alone with his thoughts, which were growing darker by the second.

  


The princess, after that, did not bother visiting Mikko at all. There were some days where he did not wish to leave his bed; only Seedling’s desperate pleas to come and join him in the solar for games and conversation would draw him out. Mikko could see the spring arriving through the window every day, but it felt like the time around Midwinter to him. At least then he had been left alone with an explanation. Seedling said only that there was so much for everyone to do before spring, and did not answer when Mikko asked him for further details. Something was being kept hidden from him and he could not figure out what, or why.

His curiosity about his situation was at its peak when the princess herself awakened him one day.

"It is afternoon," she said, "and I have a surprise for you. Spring will be here tomorrow, and you will join the rest of us assembled here for feasting and music this evening. Get up and allow me to get you ready."

"Where's Seedling?" Mikko mumbled. He was wondering what led the princess to discard her favorite toy without a thought, but he did not want to anger her by asking.

"He is getting ready for the feast himself. See, I am ready, and now it is your turn."

Mikko let her dress him in yet another bright green and overly floral outfit, smiling at every comment she made about it and how lovely he would look in it. He had become very good at false smiles. His smile at realizing that nothing excessive was to be done with his hair and that he would escape with only having to wear a circlet made of tulips was genuine. He was afraid the tulips would make him sneeze, but they were only tulips; easy to remove and not painful to touch.

"There we go, all pretty and all done." She took his left hand in her right. "I will take you down to our great hall. Do not let go of my hand or you will get lost in here."

Mikko would not have let go even if she hadn't commanded him to. Every time he was out in those halls of the palace, he became confused. He wondered if this confusion was deliberate; he may have lived there but he did not belong there. The very building may have been persistently rejecting his presence, or it may have been laid on it to prevent him from escaping or wandering into places where he was not intended to be. The path the princess led him on to the great hall was long and winding, along more levels than he remembered climbing to get to his new quarters from his original ones. He had no hope of remembering how to get back to where he had come from, either, so there was no chance that he would leave the great hall without leave.

The great hall itself was the largest room he had seen in quite a while. It was held up with columns formed into the shape of trees. It was filled with a vast array of people, more people than he had seen in his entire year in these lands. They weren't just the folk he saw from his window the day of the rade, or the ones at the Midsummer festival. There was a table near the one he was being led to with people who were dressed slightly differently than the ones he had seen here, headed by a faery woman whose raiment was comparable to that of the queen's.

The princess noticed where Mikko was looking. "I see you have noticed the northern queen. She is visiting here with her closest courtiers as she does every spring; her human lover will be providing our music for today. We cannot have our own, of course, with you here; but he does very well and his voice is very beautiful."

Mikko took a closer look at the table. There was a human man of slightly shorter than normal height, dressed in dark brown, sitting on the side of the queen. Mikko could not tell how old he was. He probably had been changed in some of the same ways Mikko had been. The man looked up and his gaze met Mikko's; there was a deep sadness in his eyes.

The princess led Mikko to a small table in between the table of the queen's intimate court and that of the northern visitors. "Are you not going to share this with me?" Mikko asked.

"I am sorry; you have your own food and I have mine and they cannot be mixed. You know that." She patted him on the head. "You will have company soon, after our visitor has performed for us. You are allowed to talk to him. He can tell you so much about what it is like there!"

Mikko sat down and looked at the table. The other tables, throughout the hall, were laden with the first course. Mikko had been given nothing but a goblet of water. All that bounty and not for him; of course not, nothing here had ever been for him in the first place despite promises and honeyed words. He put his hands in his lap and stared at them. So many people here, so much to see, but all of it was like watching a movie on a 360-degree screen. If he could not interact, he had decided not to see it. It would only awaken desires in him that would go unfulfilled, perhaps for the rest of his life.

The clear tenor voice that suddenly filled the hall snapped Mikko out of his funk. The music being sung had no strange, mystical powers. It was coming out of the human that had come with the northerners, and it was, to Mikko's amazement, being sung in Finnish. Mikko remembered that the princess in her confession had mentioned that Mikko had said something in a tongue she couldn't understand. Neither could anyone else here, if the faeries' smiling, pleased expressions were an indication; the song the man was singing called them out for their cruelty and their capriciousness, for the deaths they caused and lives they ruined. There was rot in the spring, the man sung, and it was going to kill their beautiful land from the core out.

The entire hall clapped as he finished his song. Mikko had schooled his expression again into his usual game face; showing nothing, no pleasure, no dislike, only an intense stare. The man had been looking at him the entire time. Mikko had a feeling that he knew that at least one person in that hall had understood his message.

The main course had been placed on the tables when the hall had been transfixed with the song. There were two bowls of soup at the table. Mikko looked down at his. It was rice soup in some sort of broth; when he tasted it he surmised that the broth had been in the vicinity of a cooked chicken sometime in the past. That past may not have been that day. It was the most tasteless thing he had ever been given here. The singer had sat at the table as well and was also frowning at the soup.

"They're skimping on the dinners this year," the man said in English.

"With all you said about them in the song, you're criticizing them for poor hospitality? What's that analogy I have heard my teammates use--murder, arson, and jaywalking?" Mikko responded in Finnish.

The man spit out his soup into his bowl. "I did not expect anyone here to understand that. I suspected you knew something about what I was singing, but did not realize that they had captured a fellow countryman."

"I didn't suspect that there was another country of faeries out there either that enjoyed capturing Finns for their own amusement. I'm Mikko, by the way."

"I'm Antti. I went willingly, actually, but now I'm stuck. I was in the north, up by Virginia, in the lumber camps. You must be one of those who tried their luck on the farms down south, or in Minneapolis."

"I work in St. Paul but I live over in Edina." Mikko saw Antti's blank look. "It's a suburb of Minneapolis, so you're half-right."

"Hey, a city boy. I can tell by your accent, anyway. You're not from our parts."

"Correct. I'm from Turku. You're probably from up by Oulu, right? I play with a guy from there, and you sound like him."

"Yes. But I thought you weren't a musician." Antti frowned. "See, I normally perform with the human they have here; he usually writes the music and performs the instrumentals, and I sing. I didn't get any music this year from the south and I was told that this year's man hadn't any talents whatsoever."

"They keep making that mistake. I'm a professional ice hockey player. I suppose if I break my stick it produces some sort of resonance but nobody's going to dance to it." Mikko laughed.

Antti shook his head. "That's what they get out of letting the girl do it. It's what my mistress said and she's usually right about this sort of thing." He glanced over at the northerners' table and looked adoringly at their queen.

"You seem to like them over there a lot more than you like this lot even if they still won't let you go."

"Yeah, well, I only went with her because I ran into a bit of trouble. I was working in the lumber camps and got really involved in the union, and we tried to have a strike but it was broken. I'm blackballed. Probably won't be able to get a job anywhere in northern Minnesota to save my life and to be honest my life was worthless at that point. Some other guys were murdered. If the queen hadn't heard me singing, I don't know what would have happened. You'd think it was a stroke of luck, yeah, but with some of the things I've seen and done I'm not sure how lucky I was. I've been here a bit over fifteen years now. I think it's probably safe to come back, now, after all this time, and I don't look at all like I did when I was doing the lumber work."

Mikko was puzzled. "I didn't realize all this stuff was going on just fifteen years ago. I came to the States in 2004, and we had our own labor mess in the NHL that year, but what you and your fellows were going through sounds desperate."

"You just said 2004."

"Yeah? It's 2018."

Antti put his head in his hands and breathed deeply. "I've been counting too. 1932. I was taken in 1917. You?"

"2017. This time last year."

"That makes sense with what they do. This is the fifteenth time I've attended this spring festival, and...I think you've been here longer than you think, too. I was going to come with you, I'd have thought they'd have stopped looking for me, but...I was born in 1893, you're going to tell me something odd, and with whatever they did to you I can't tell how old you are."

"I was born in 1983. I had thought my thirty-fifth birthday was about a week and a half back but...I see it was only in the technical sense."

"That girl really made a mistake. The queen's men were all younger, short guys mostly, dark like me. All musicians, like I said. The last one was a drummer, that was awful. All of it was awful."

"Awful how?"

"You do realize what's going to happen, right?"

"Not really clear on that, no. I'm supposed to sit here tonight and make nice conversation with you in which you were supposed to tell me about all the wonders of the north, and who knows what happens tomorrow, other than it's the spring equinox."

"Every year at this time they sacrifice someone to make sure the spring comes in right. It's going to happen tomorrow, and it's going to be you if we don't do something about it. This is the first time I've been able to let someone know, just because they happened to grab a Finnish speaker. Can't say any of this in English, they'd know."

"That makes too much sense. How are we going to do this?"

Antti was silent for a bit in thought. "Do you know the name of the princess?"

Mikko shook his head. "I asked her once and didn't get an answer. So I think that road has been closed off to us."

"That's not good. My lady doesn't know much of it either and wouldn't share it with me. She hates putting me in danger. Small pranks on them, like that song, that's one thing; making off with their sacrifice may be another. She doesn't like the queen in the south much, sure, and she thinks this sacrifice business is ridiculous--we don't do it--but this isn't her country and she's not going to directly fool with it if she doesn't have to. On the other hand, it's not the queen's sacrifice this year, it's her daughter's, and from everything I've been told she was a little annoyance as a child. Now as a young adult she is a big annoyance."

"Great, a mutual non-interference pact. Those usually don't work so well."

"Does she know all of your name?" Antti asked. Mikko shook his head again. "You have that working for you at least. She has some power over you, obviously, but not all of it."

"I figured that out pretty quickly when I asked what to call her. My servants appear to have been far more helpful than they seemed."

"Have you been able to get word out to your loved ones? Appearing in dreams? Could they fetch you if you called?"

"Yeah, sort of, I saw a teammate of mine--the one from Oulu, actually--a few times in visions, but not sure if that's going to do any good. Team may be on a road trip now anyway. Honestly, he may not even be with the team anymore. I haven't dreamed of him for a while. Everybody else who cares for me is probably back in Finland, and I'm willing to bet that's not a place we can cross over, if even you came out of Minnesota."

"They're going to have to go and get another one tomorrow, so they're going to open the barrier between the worlds. Only problem is getting you out."

"Not you with me?"

"If you're telling the truth, and I don't doubt you are, the time you're from is not mine. There's no place for a man like me in it. There's probably no place for a man like you in it, who knows? 2023? 2024? I can't even comprehend those dates."

Mikko nodded. "Nobody is going to look at you walking around here tonight or tomorrow. I get confused when I walk around, all lost, so either this place is spelled against me or I'm spelled against it. You can find the way out?"

"I have before. I believe that you are correct. Not that I have the run of the place, not being from here, but we don't need a guide to walk around."

"So if you find the way to get out, and you can find where I am--in the princess's own quarters by the way--you can lead me out."

"Probably. I've seen the replacements come through before, so finding the gates also shouldn't be a bother. They usually set up in the same spot even though they don't seem to come out at the same one. I've even met a few of them that came through. I did not meet you because they made such a botch of it. I thought they were trying to kill you a year earlier than they needed to. So much blood; they broke a few other things too, I imagine."

"I wouldn't know; by the time I was fully conscious, everything was already fixed."

"Fixed, so they could rip you apart, change you from the inside out, and then kill you. I don't like what was done to me and that wasn't even that much, not like you. I'm resigned to staying now, but I'll do whatever I can to free you." Antti looked away from Mikko and to the table of the southern court. "We will have to switch to English; your princess is coming for you."

"We talked so much that I forgot to look around myself," Mikko responded in English. "I should have; you were so interesting that I missed so much."

"You also forgot to eat," the princess said from behind him. "You seemed to have been doing so much talking! And you are normally so very quiet. I am glad you were interested in something. It is time for bed, my jewel, at least for you. You will have a busy morning ahead of you. Seedling will lead you back home, and I will see you at our spring ceremony tomorrow."

"He was very interesting! You were correct."

She bent down and kissed Mikko on his left cheek. "I know best. And I know you need to get up and leave. Say goodbye to your new friend."

Mikko stood up. "Yes, thank you. I've learned so much from you, friend. Will I see you tomorrow?"

Antti nodded. "Perhaps."

  


Mikko quietly followed Seedling back to his quarters. Seedling also had nothing to say.

"Please come in with me and help get me out of this nonsense," Mikko asked him at the door.

"I will. I have nothing else to do, to be honest." Seedling's glance would not meet Mikko's eyes.

"I don't want to be alone right now. I need a friend."

Seedling did not answer him as they walked in together. The cold blue light in Mikko's room looked even colder to him. He had been kept in the dark for a year. Everything that had been done had been for that young woman's amusement; she had known what would be done to him. She probably would be the one to do it to him, if what she had been given to do in that year was an indication. This whole thing was a test for her and he was the subject.

"You've known what is going to happen too, didn't you, Seedling?"

Seedling nodded. "Yes, and I hate every bit of it. We were ordered not to tell you, but you seem to know it. I am not as cruel as these high faeries are; we are held in place by the same manipulations that you are, I believe. They keep insisting that this is a needed ritual for the spring to come, but as someone with as close a connection to the soil and air as I have...it seems false."

"They are speaking nonsense, the spring comes every year like it's supposed to, that's how the world works back home, it's just a thing that happens. You know this in your heart. They do this because they can."

"I know, but what can either of us do? We are trapped."

"We are not. Can you promise to help me? I have someone to help. You need to help him come here so he can lead me out."

"We cannot do it tonight; they are, the most of them, still in the great hall feasting."

"Tomorrow, then. We had planned for tomorrow. You need to find the human attached to the northern court in the morning so he can get me out before anyone will know that I am gone."

"That will be difficult. Tomorrow morning, early, I will come here to get you ready and make you drink something that will make you suggestible and tired; by the time you will be...sacrificed...you will be asleep and feel nothing. I believe the queen may have given you this before as a test."

Mikko nodded. "Yes, I believe so. But I know there will be enough time between when I drink this and when it takes full effect that I should be able to escape. Can you find him before coming here for me?"

"Yes, I can."

"We will just have to see what the morning will bring us. I will attempt to sleep." Mikko knew that it would only be an attempt.

  


Mikko managed to get a small amount of sleep but he was very awake when Seedling arrived in the morning. He was about to ask Seedling if his meeting with Antti had been successful but Seedling was holding his index finger to his lips. Something had happened, then, but Seedling was nervous about whatever it happened to be.

"It will be a warm day today; this robe should be sufficiently cool enough. It is the same type we use every spring; the same color and fit. Loose and easy to walk in. Come put it on, and let me fix your hair, and then I have a treat for you in the solar." Seedling was smiling, so things couldn't have gone that awry.

Mikko got ready and then drank the weirdly tasting potion he was offered. He knew that he had about two hours before it would take its full effect. "No breakfast today?"

"No. Perhaps later? I will lead you outside for the spring ceremony. Everyone will meet you. It's where the autumn one was, remember?"

"Yes, I do. Unfortunately."

"It will not be that bad! All you will have to do is walk there." Seedling was still smiling.

"I assume that's why nobody prepared me for it."

"Correct. Now, come, Mikko, it is time." Seedling walked him outside the chambers and into the confusing maze of hallways.

"I still get lost in here," Mikko said to Seedling.

"I know. And now we are far enough away and alone enough for me to speak freely. I did make contact with the northern queen's human; he is waiting for us a few hallways from here. He will take you from there. The gate, thankfully, is in the opposite direction from the ceremony grove, and if you make it there quickly you will not be caught. It is left unguarded and everyone is occupied."

"What will happen to you?"

"The northern queen does enable her dear ones to do a great deal of mischief. She is aware of what is transpiring. Myself and my family will have to go with them, as quickly as possible, before anything is discovered. We will take that risk."

"I know not to thank you outright, but I want you to know that everything you have done for me in this past year is appreciated with all my heart."

"I know, Mikko. I wish we had been able to meet in less peculiar circumstances. Oh, here we are. You go with him and go quickly!" Seedling reached up to clap Mikko on the shoulder.

"I'll have to hold onto you," Antti said, "or I will lose you for sure. Hold my hand and do not let go until we are freed of here. There are only a few more ways to go before we can exit."

Mikko took his hand and they ran down the halls. Neither of them were the swiftest runner. Mikko was afraid that they would run out of time. The ways seemed endless. Finally, they were out, into an isolated area with no trees and some barely green grass. Mikko saw a shimmer in the air. He was becoming so tired and he felt like he could not move one more step.

"That's the gate," Antti said. "Once I see you leave, I'm going to head back in so we can get out of here. Go! Go!"

Mikko tried to run, but could not. He walked as quickly as he could, but his head was swimming and every step felt like there was lead in his shoes. He went through the shimmer and then everything went black.

* * *

The dog pulled at the retractable leash as he ran off to sniff something at the lakeshore. She stared at whatever the dog was sniffing at. It looked like someone had dumped a green quilt down there, right in the snow. She followed the dog down, and realized the green quilt was not that at all, but a body wearing a bright green robe. She knelt next to it and picked up its hand. There was a faint pulse there. So, not a body, but a live person. She picked up her phone and called 911. This was in plain sight of the Woodbury fire station. Someone would be there soon, if there was nobody in the fire station. Someone would help, hopefully before it was too late.


	14. Chapter 14

Mikko could see the bright sunshine illuminating his room without his eyes even being open. It felt like it would be a beautiful morning. Had he been taken back to his old rooms? It didn't smell like them. This room smelled of chemicals. It sounded of slight beeping and murmurs. He opened his eyes and blinked. He was hooked to monitors, the cause of the beeping, and this room was definitely not in the palace. It was a hospital room and the person Mikko could see snoozing on the window seat was a middle-aged human male, normal height, with greying blond hair and beige skin--no signs of green at all. The man looked familiar. He looked a lot like his brother, except older.

"Hey, Saku! Wake up!" Mikko called out. It hurt to talk that loudly.

The man woke with a startled expression. Yes, indeed, that was his brother. Saku always looked that way when he was jolted from sleep. He stood up and walked over to Mikko's bedside.

"You're finally awake," Saku said. "They said it was going to happen, we just had to wait it out."

"It did before, the last time," Mikko replied softly. "I only wish I could remember how I got here. It's all fuzzy again."

"'Fuzzy' and 'again.'" Saku frowned. "How many times was this done to you in those last seven years?"

"I only remember...oh, it was twice, but the first time I don't remember drinking anything, I don't remember anything at all. I remember running, so slowly, and I am here now. Saku? What's the date? You said seven years."

"March 23rd, 2024."

"It can't be...but I was told, things work different there...I thought I escaped, I passed through, on the 20th of March, of 2018."

"No, Mikko. It has been seven years since you were kidnapped. You can't remember all of them?" Saku held Mikko's hand tightly.

"I remember spending one year. The seasons changed like one year. You look so old, Saku. So old. Did you worry about me all those years?"

"We all did, until we realized you were probably dead. Mikael Granlund even saw your ghost in the locker room, right near the time you had been gone four years. We hoped that something would be found of you, but that vision was the only thing we've had of you until three days ago. I flew here as soon as we found out."

"I'm so glad you're here. Don't leave me! They were going to kill me; that's why I ran, I didn't know I'd come so far. So I am still in Minnesota?"

"Yes, Mikko. Right in Woodbury, where they found you. I won't leave, don't worry. I'll just press the call button here and someone will come. I wanted some time with you alone, because once I call they'll want to know things, and I won't have a chance to speak with you alone for some time after that."

"I don't know where I was. I don't know anything. I just want to go home, safe, with you." Mikko started to cry.

"Crying? That's not like you, not for years, not since you were small. What did they do to you?"

"Can't you see what they did? Look at me!"

"I see, I did, but it was more than that. You never cry about nothing. Once I can take you home, we'll get you looking more normal, hey? Get rid of that hair, for one thing."

"I'd like to get rid of it now! There's so much to do in the next five months, too."

"Eh?"

"I'm going to play hockey again. Hopefully in the NHL. I have to get back to myself."

Saku gave him a faint smile. "We Koivu boys never give up, I see."

  


Saku had been correct about the consequences of pushing the button. The nurses came, followed by the doctors, and then various law enforcement personnel. Mikko answered all the questions truthfully, which led to much confusion. He knew they assumed that he had been kept not just isolated, but drugged, for all seven years. The conclusion that they had come to in the end was that he had been held by some sort of cult which was using genetic engineering for their own weird ends; by the time this had happened, Mikko was safely back in Finland and trying to get himself in shape for the 2024-25 hockey season.

It was tougher than he thought it would be. Even after putting in all that hard work, getting an NHL team to bite on a 41-year-old who hadn't played in seven years was even harder; it wasn't like they were going to believe the truth of Mikko actually being only thirty-five and just a year out of action. His agent had taken him back on as a client and he had been calling everyone he could think of to drum up interest. The Wild had won a Cup while he was in captivity and had gone so far as to retire his number; they didn't show any desire in bringing the living ghost of their first permanent captain back so he could prop up the fourth line. Mikko was just resigning himself to either playing at home eventually or sitting out the season when his agent let him know that the Seattle Kraken wanted to sign him to a PTO. They had too many injuries in training camp and they were willing to see what he had so they didn't have to burn anyone's first ELC year early.

Mikko's first response was the dim realization that expansion had happened--again--and Seattle had a team; his second response was to tell his agent that he'd be there as soon as possible. It was their fourth season in the NHL and they hadn't been as lucky as the Vegas Golden Knights had been, despite the same expansion rules. They looked a lot like the usual burning disaster clubs of the northwest, except with far more reasons for it than the other three teams ever did. What they had were a bunch of middling draft picks and a bunch of injuries. When Mikko got to camp and he realized that, even if he had been allowed to claim the thirty-five he actually was, he would still be the oldest player on the team, he felt panic. He wasn't going to make this team. He was a slow skater, and the NHL's need for speed had only increased in the last seven years. He couldn't relate to these kids. The kids already had their own leadership. Why did they even need him?

They needed him enough to sign him to a one-year contract. Someone had to show them the Ways of Elite Defense, and for some reason he still had that going for him. He didn't mind being assigned to a checking line. He had enough of being expected to score with the Wild. Not being expected to score was a change. Mikko wasn't coming in as a franchise savior; he was only coming in to make sure that some nineteen-year-old got some time learning how to be a pro in the AHL instead of failing at a top level. When he put on that dark sea-green Kraken uniform for a real game that counted, with the number 18 on the back--chosen because it was twice 9, and this was his second time around--he felt like his career was being reborn.

Coming to Minnesota that October for the Kraken's only trip there felt like the opposite. His number was still in the rafters at the X. Zach Parise was still there, wearing the C that so many people thought he should have had in the first place, as well as the ever-present alternate captain Ryan Suter. They were both retiring after that season. Mikko didn't know what to say to them, and they didn't know what to say to Mikko. Zach explained how empty they all felt during that 2017-18 season, and Ryan said that he wished Mikko had been there to win the Cup for real; Mikko knew that they meant what they said, but what could he answer them with? Every day he had been in Faerie captive, that year that was seven, he wanted to be out there playing with his teammates. But after the 2016-17 season, they had started to scatter to the winds, first to expansion and then to trades, free agency, and inevitable retirement. Granny had joined Winnipeg after their first Cup run and had been there for another. The Wild hadn't done much of anything after their championship season. Mikko was glad, in some ways, they hadn't asked him back. He had begged one of the rookies to share a room with him on the trip because he didn't feel safe. Living here, every day, would have been worse; they could find him and drag him back at any time.

The rest of the season was indeed a learning experience for Mikko and the team. He learned from his young linemates about how the world had changed during his captivity; they learned about how the game used to be played. Freed of the expectation for their line to score, they scored better than anyone would have thought. They all gained confidence. The only problems Mikko was having were personal. He was afraid to go anywhere by himself and did not want to get into any deep friendships or relationships. It wasn't fair to them or him if he would be taken again. He couldn't stop looking over his shoulder, not until he was free of North America for the season.

He had been invited to play for the Finnish national team in the World Championships but declined. It was another generation's turn now; the gold he had won in 2011 would have to be enough. He felt less bad about lamenting the Olympics when he was away when he found out that he would have missed both of them anyway due to the NHL not allowing players to go.

Mikko had to return to the States anyway that summer. He had been nominated for the Masterton and thus had to make his way to Las Vegas for the NHL Awards. Mikko's lone complaint about the Pacific Division was that the Kraken had to make so many road trips to cities that were far too sunny, and that was in the winter. Vegas in June was intolerable. Saku was with him as his guest and he was having fun golfing. Mikko tried, but had realized that the outdoors was really not for him anymore. He was being as socially awkward as possible, too, and he hated every minute of his experience up to actually receiving the award and bursting into tears on worldwide television.

  


Decisions were easy for Mikko during his free agency period. The Kraken wanted him back for another year. He re-signed. The next season went the same way as the last. The team was getting better. Mikko was more relaxed. His contract kept getting renewed, year after year after year, until he realized his body had finally had enough of the game. He felt every bit of actual forty-one. It was time to retire. He hadn't actually got to win a Cup in his own right, but they had at least got to the Stanley Cup Final in his last season. He had been there long enough to see the young men he had played with in 2024 become stars and leaders in their own right. Mikko was very proud of them. He had told them, right before their last regular season game, that he was not coming back for 2030-31. He hadn't intended that to be a team motivator, but it was.

Mikko was satisfied when he looked back at both halves of his career. It wasn't a Hall of Fame one, but it was a testament to endurance in all aspects. He had come to terms with the fact that he and Saku were very different players and even if other people kept comparing them, they both were very good at their differing skills. Hockey had given him everything he had asked for.

The rest of his personal life was very different. He allowed nobody to come close and the fear of being recaptured was always in the back of his mind, even in Finland. He kept looking out for shapes in the trees and a telltale shimmer in the air. It never came, but if it had, he knew that he would be unable to resist being called back. One day, even in his old age, he would hear that music again, and he would follow.

**Author's Note:**

> Now that this is complete, I can finally thank the nonnies both on the meme itself and in the Discord for commenting on the bits posted in the 3-5 Lines threads and for the occasional beta read and persistent words of encouragement; if it wasn't for coming into the Discord in March 2017 and asking for help, not only would I not have finished this fic, but not started on any of the other ones I have written in the last year. I had not written any fiction in a decade and was feeling discouraged. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
> 
> Re certain things in the fic itself: I have no idea where Mikko Koivu actually lives beyond the name of the city (which was mentioned in a few articles in the local paper); the start location was picked by a look on Google Maps for appropriate open spaces. The end location was chosen only due to my personal familiarity, and nobody else's.
> 
> I created a selected [list](https://lilymaid.dreamwidth.org/473.html) of books consulted while writing this fic. The full bibliography can be produced on request but there are a lot of dead ends in it.


End file.
